Sworn Virgin (Vergine giurata), directed by Laura Bispuri, offers a very unusual story. Two sisters, Lila (played by Dajana Selimaj) and adopted Hana (Alba Rohrwacher), are growing up in mountainous Albania. Their mother has died, so their father (Bruno Shllaku) is without a son to help with the arduous task of goat herding. Hana, however, seems attracted to outdoor labor, so her father teaches her how to use a rifle as if she were a boy. Lila, meanwhile, has a boyfriend and flees to Milan to raise a family. That leaves Hana, who is officially renamed “Mark” during a ceremony attended by village elders in which a lock of feminine hair is cut by the father. (To show that the practice is not uncommon, an older transgendered person named Pal is identified as a “sworn virgin” in the nearby town square one day.) But the father eventually dies, and Mark sets out for Milan. On arrival, Mark knocks on the door of Lila (now played by Flolnja Kodheli) without advance warning. They had not seen each other for 14 years. Lila’s husband agrees to let Mark stay, though their daughter Jonida (Emily Ferratello), who must sleep on the living room couch, is annoyed by someone whose sexual identity is uncertain. Mark then seeks to adjust not only to life in Milan but also to make a decision about sexuality. Much of the film focuses on Mark’s observations at Jonida’s swimming pool competition, including Mark’s visit to the male locker room, where Bernhard (Lars Eldinger), the pool manager, seeks to have sex with Mark, who knows nothing about the subject. Along the way, filmviewers learn that in order to survive as a male, Mark must wear an upper body corset. But beautiful breasts pop out when the corset is removed, and the transformation back to Hana is played out slowly in the film with multiple flashbacks. Eventually, Bernhard gets an apartment for Mark so that the family can get back to normal, while Mark does the same in coming to terms with being Hana again. MH