Lola and the Sea

Laurent Micheli’s second feature showcases the Belgian transgender actress Mya Bollaers, who is a star in the making.

Sami Outalbali

Here's a film made with immense sympathy for its subject matter. The writer-director is Laurent Micheli, a Belgian also noted for his work as a stage director and as an actor. Lola and the Sea is his second feature film and it has as a central character an 18-year-old transgender girl (Mya Bollaers). Now calling herself Lola, she has been brought up as Lionel and we first meet her at what for more reasons than one is a crucial time in her life. She has already recognised her situation and has left home having aroused the hostility of her father and she is now preparing for surgery with the additional concern over how she will manage to pay for it. On top of that her mother, Catherine, who had been sympathetic to Lola’s wishes and who had secretly remained in contact with her, has suddenly died.

As one would expect, Lola and the Sea is Lola's story, but it is also that of her father, Philippe (Benoît Magimel). He remains totally at odds with her when she turns up at the memorial for her dead mother whereupon she acts aggressively in turn and seizes the urn containing Catherine's ashes. However, Philippe later explains that her mother’s declared wish had been to have her ashes scattered by the North Sea where she had grown up. Lola, deeply attached to her mother, won't relinquish the ashes so a compromise is reached, one that sees father and daughter sharing the long road journey to the coast. An enforced overnight stop finds them getting accommodation at what is, in effect, a brothel but by travelling together these two become more aware of aspects of each other and of Catherine which had remained hidden.

There are some details in the tale that could prevent one from fully believing it (the patronne of the brothel, admirably played by Els Deceukelier, has a heart of gold and, if the central conflict causes Lola to run off more than once, she and her father encounter one another again with surprising ease). Yet these are details that one does not take too much to heart because the two main characters are so well portrayed. Mya Bollaers in this, her first feature film, won Belgium’s Magritte award for Most Promising Actress and is herself transgender. To cast the role in this way has been a complete success. It will obviously please all those who would want this role to be played by somebody who is indeed transgender, but the fact is that what we see confirms that Bollaers has real screen presence. As for Magimel as the father, this well-established actor plays with subtlety and the writing is admirably balanced between refusing to play down the pain that Philippe is causing and letting us understand his feelings however misplaced they may be.

Micheli while fully supportive of Lola refuses to turn Philippe into someone who is simply the villain of the piece so that we can genuinely hope for an eventual rapport between father and daughter (and, while those small details already mentioned lack complete conviction, Philippe’s discovery of Catherine’s support for Lola which he had not suspected is something that could definitely encourage a change in his attitude). Lola and the Sea is a small-scale piece but one notable for the performances and for its tone (there is a highly sympathetic supporting role for Sami Outalbali as a gay man who supports Lola). It's an additional bonus that Micheli has a special skill for using recorded music to good effect and his range extends from ‘Vissi d’Arte’ (the Callas recording, of course) to songs by Culture Club and Antony and the Johnsons.

Original title: Lola vers la mer. Alternative title: Lola.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Benoît Magimel, Mya Bollaers, Els Deceukelier, Sami Outalbali, Jérémy Zagba, Thao Maerten, Félix Vannoorenberghe, Robbie Cleiren, Denis Mpunga, Anemone Valcke.

Dir Laurent Micheli, Pro Sébastien Haguenauer and Benoït Roland, Screenplay Laurent Micheli, Ph Olivier Boonjing, Art Dir Catherine Cosme, Ed Julie Naas with Sophie Vercruysse, Music Raf Keunen, Costumes Clément Vachelard.

10:15! Productions/Lunanime/RTBF/Wrong Men North-Peccadillo Pictures.
90 mins. France/Belgium. 2019. US Rel: 16 October 2020. UK Rel: 17 December 2021. Cert. 15.