Mein Sohn Helen (2015)

Sixteen-year-old Finn Wilke lives in Berlin with his father, Tobias, a renowned chef. Finn’s mother died in an accident three years earlier. Tobias decides to send Finn abroad for a year to stay with his aunt in San Francisco. When Tobias goes to pick up his now seventeen-year-old child at the airport, he finds a young woman named Helen, whom he gradually recognizes as his child. Helen tells her father that she has always felt trapped in the wrong body. It is revealed that both her late mother and her teacher, Diana Calis, knew of Finn’s wish to change sex. In fact, the stay abroad had been arranged so that Finn could live as his true gender (before leaving, Finn had already begun hormone therapy to delay sexual development during puberty). Once she comes of age in San Francisco, Finn undergoes surgery to change her biological sex. Helen’s father has great difficulty accepting the situation, which he cannot understand. The reactions of friends, acquaintances, and classmates, however, vary widely, ranging from mockery and bullying to solidarity. After a wild nighttime raid with her girlfriends ends at a police station, the youth welfare office intervenes to investigate the events surrounding Helen’s gender assignment. To avoid the problems that are emerging and protect her father from injustice, Helen decides to live again in the role of Finn. However, Helen cannot accept this and rebels against being forced to play a male role. The story seems to be heading toward a tragic ending, with Finn mutilating himself in his bedroom, but he abandons his intention thanks to his father’s unexpected arrival. A year after that event, Finn is finally living as Helen, accepted by everyone, while Tobias finds a new partner in teacher Diana Calis, and all the problems seem to have been overcome.