A queer road-movie-cum-transsexual romance. In his feature film debut, director Jake Yuzna spectacularly combines all kinds of gender crossing permutations. One of the film’s protagonists is the young hermaphrodite Cynthia. It’s not until Cynthia meets Gen and Jay, a couple that has recently undergone plastic surgery enhancements, that she first hears the term pandrogony. The word is like a promise and speaks of the possibility of two people being able to merge their facial expressions in order to conquer their isolated identities and become a single entity. Cynthia is enchanted by the idea! She promptly leaves her husband and sets off with Jay and Gen on a road trip that takes her through what’s left of the American dream of the twentieth century.
At the same time, Syd, a transsexual, meets a young punk named Nick. Not only do they fall in love with each other, but Syd also falls pregnant! Open is a film about hormone treatments and surgery; a film that also unveils a new kind of human being. Pioneers in the world of transcending human experience, authentic hermaphrodites and transsexuals all join forces to present on screen the possibilities that are emerging for human- kind at the outset of a century that has barely begun. –Berlinale
