I Am Mario

Mario (Oustin de León) is a gentle forty-year-old transgender taxi driver working in a big city in present-day México. He has bonded with his colleagues and has a relationship with his family — his mother and two sisters — that is caring and mostly stable. When he unexpectedly becomes pregnant, he finally has the opportunity to fulfill a long-held and intimate desire to become a father. But the news also shakes what he thought were the solid foundations of many of his own beliefs and expectations, particularly those regarding his masculinity. Mario’s questioning leads him to painful decisions and a sense of being completely cornered by life. Before exposing himself to his colleagues and facing social prejudices, he must confront himself.

Writer and director Sharon Kleinberg — making her directorial debut after a long career as both an actor and playwright — conducted extensive research for her feature film debut, which led her not only to cast a trans man — and untrained actor — as her lead, but to crystallize a deeply moving and dignified narrative. I Am Mario is a film that challenges moral, social, and religious principles and assumptions surrounding pregnancy, which is traditionally associated solely with women. Faced with a circumstance that is hard to fathom, Mario finds courage and strength in the vulnerability he thought wasn’t a part of him anymore.

DIANA CADAVID

Content advisory: homophobic, racist, and transphobic language; explicit sex scenes