Film

A Fantastic Woman

A Fantastic Woman is Sebastián Lelio's tense, tender Chilean drama about grief hijacked by suspicion. Daniela Vega plays Marina, a trans singer whose older partner dies suddenly, leaving her to face his family's hostility and the state's casual cruelty while still in shock. It's quietly furious, occasionally surreal, and built entirely around Vega's magnetic, guarded performance — for anyone drawn to character studies about dignity under siege.

TMDb rating7.0

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Moonlight2016

Barry Jenkins turns three chapters of one boy's life into a hushed, aching study of masculinity and belonging; like Marina, its hero learns to hold his own dignity even when the world refuses to grant it.

But Its impressionistic structure and long, quiet stretches can feel slow if you want a clearer, more driven plot.

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Carol2015

Todd Haynes' 1950s love story is all repression and stolen glances — a forbidden romance that must survive a world designed to erase it, shot with the same patient, tender camera work as Lelio's film.

But Its glacial pace and reticence may frustrate if you want raw confrontation rather than restraint.

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Gone Girl2014

This Belgian drama follows a trans teenage ballet dancer chasing physical perfection while her body and her world resist her; it shares Marina's fierce, quiet insistence on being seen as herself.

But The final act is punishing, and some trans critics have taken issue with how the film handles the body.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Victim1961

Both films watch institutions — police, law, family — turn a person's private grief or love into public suspicion, and both insist on the protagonist's right to simply exist without confession or apology.

A pioneering British thriller in which a respected barrister risks everything to fight blackmailers exploiting his hidden homosexuality — startling for 1961, and just as furious about a society that criminalises love.

But Its stagey style and legally-necessary coded dialogue will feel dated next to modern queer cinema.

Victim poster
More like this (8)

Tangerine2015

Shot on iPhones on Christmas Eve in LA, this scrappy comedy follows two trans sex workers with an energy that's the opposite of Marina's composure — loud, funny, and defiantly alive.

But The handheld chaos and broad humour are a world away from the hushed grief of Lelio's film.

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45 Years2015

A long marriage is upended by a letter revealing a secret from the husband's past, and Charlotte Rampling's performance is a masterclass in grief curdling into the re-examination of everything she thought she knew.

But It's a near-static two-hander driven entirely by mood and implication, with almost no plot movement.

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Manchester by the Sea2016

Casey Affleck plays a man dragged back to face grief he's spent years avoiding; the film shares A Fantastic Woman's refusal to soften mourning into something tidy or redemptive.

But Its unrelenting sadness offers little catharsis and no easy resolution by the end.

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Gloria2013no page yet

Lelio's earlier Chilean film follows a divorced woman refusing to disappear into middle age, dancing and dating with startling defiance — the same director's eye for a woman insisting on her own aliveness.

But It's lighter and more comic than A Fantastic Woman, so don't expect the same weight of grief.

The Danish Girl2015no page yet

Eddie Redmayne's Oscar-baiting turn as Lili Elbe traces one of the earliest known gender transitions, with lush period detail and a marriage forced to redefine itself.

But It's tidier and more conventionally prestige-y than Lelio's rawer film, and its casting has drawn real criticism.

Pariah2011

A Brooklyn teenager navigates queer identity against family expectation in Dee Rees' tender, low-budget debut, sharing Marina's struggle to claim herself in spaces that would rather she stayed hidden.

But Its coming-of-age framing and shorter runtime make it a smaller, quieter story than Lelio's.

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Pose2018

Same subject — trans women fighting for dignity, love and recognition against hostile institutions — but stretched into a sprawling, celebratory ensemble format instead of one woman's tense, solitary ordeal.

Set in New York's 1980s ballroom scene, this lavish, large-hearted series follows trans women building families of choice while the world outside refuses them recognition — joyous where Lelio's film is contained, but driven by the same hunger to be seen.

But Three seasons of soap-opera melodrama are a much bigger commitment than a tight 104-minute film.

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Rebecca1940

Both centre on a woman denied legitimacy in a house and life she has every right to, forced to prove her claim to grief and belonging against people determined to write her out of the story.

A new bride moves into a house still ruled by the ghost of her husband's first wife and finds her own identity slowly erased by everyone around her — a Gothic thriller about a living woman fighting a dead one's shadow.

But It's a genre piece — moody, plotty, occasionally melodramatic — with none of the social realism or contemporary politics of Lelio's film.

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Disclosure, Disobedience, Boys Don't Cry, Glen or Glenda, All About My Mother