She Male Snails

Caught between two genders the artist Eli Leven and Ester Martin Bergsmark touch and caress each other while they bath together in clouds of steam A persuasive voiceoff describes the often hard and painful growing process which led them to choose to be neither males nor females But something else entirely While memories of adolescences scarred by homophobia and discrimination are presented the audience is also captivated by poetic evocations of bodies of snowy woods water nature and snails the symbol of androgyny This movie moves the audience profoundly It is a hymn to sexual fluidity which reveals the search for the true self rendered through the use of contrasting vivid and often acid bright photography Intended as a television portrait of the transgender artist Eli Leven it is a psychedelic docufiction a hybrid movie inspired by Derek Jarmans Sebastian