BETTY

This emblematic hybrid short, part fiction, part documentary, depicts 24 hours in the life of a trans woman, based on the autobiography of Betty Vakalidou. Memories of her former life intertwine with moments from the present as childhood collides with the struggles of adulthood and day gives way to night. Made just a few years after the fall of the military dictatorship and almost 40 years before gender transition was legally recognized in Greece, Dimitris Stavrakas' film paints a portrait of its heroine, while at the same time capturing a specific moment in history and a society in transition. Although rejected by the Thessaloniki Film Festival at the time, the film was released theatrically the following year, opening for Fellini's “Orchestra Rehearsal”.