Determined 15-year-old Lara is committed to becoming a professional ballerina. With the support of her father, she throws herself into this quest for the absolute at a new school. Lara’s adolescent frustrations and impatience are heightened as she realises her body does not bend so easily to the strict discipline because she was assigned male at birth.

During my childhood years my father wanted me to be a boyscout. Every two weeks he would drop me and my brother off and we would play with the other kids in the mud or go camping. We both hated going there. We much rather wanted to act, sing and dance because they felt like ways for us to truly express ourselves. You can imagine that it was confusing when we found out not much later that this was seen as feminin, 'for girls'. I was a boy, so how could I like this? And eventually I stopped doing so because I didn't want to be laughed at.

Many years later, when I had just started film school, I read an article in a newspaper about a young girl. She was born in a boy's body but convinced she was in fact a girl. Even if her biology didn't agree with her. My admiration for her was instant. My passion to show a character like this, a courageous youngster, that challenges a society in which gender and sex are inevitably connected, enormous.

And there GIRL began. In the need to say something about how we perceive gender, about femininity and masculinity. But most importantly about an internal struggle of a young heroin who's putting her body at risk to become the person she wants to be. Someone who chose to be her true self at fifteen, which for some people takes a lifetime.

Lukas Dhont was born in Ghent, Belgium. He graduated with a diploma in audio-visual arts from the KASK School Of Arts in Ghent. His short films, CORPS PERDU and L’INFINI, received numerous prizes. L’INFINI also qualified for the Oscars in 2015. Throughout his studies, he focused on fiction but also explored the possibilities of documentary. In 2016 Lukas Dhont participated in the Cannes Cinéfondation residency with the script for his first feature film, GIRL. This film combines themes the filmmaker has already explored, including: dance, transformation and identity. Lukas Dhont collaborates regularly with choreographer and dancer Jan Martens with whom he co-signed a performance titled "The Common People".

Filmography:
2018 - GIRL
2014 - L'INFINI, short
2012 - CORPS PERDU, short
2012 - SKIN OF GLASS, short doc