Synopsis
Normal is an unsettling visual journey through gender norms in contemporary society. Immersed in a kaleidoscopic mosaic of visually powerful scenes, viewers experience the ritualised performance of femininity and masculinity hidden in ordinary interactions, from birth to adulthood. Isolating the slightly grotesque, uncanny elements surrounding our everyday life, Normal meditates on what remains imperceptible about it – its governing norms, its inner mechanisms. The result is that what counts as ‘normal’ does not feel so reassuring, anymore.
A word from Tënk
What defines our gender identity? Is there something innate in us that makes us prefer pink or blue, or are our choices motivated by a social construction? Starting with a PhD thesis, the author gathers fragments of our everyday lives and arranges them according to the growth and development of the construction of the self from childhood to adulthood. In composed images, lending a scientific nature to her artistic research, she portrays a learning curve for community life that highlights the tests of courage and strength, which are very different for men and women. Emerging from the director’s gaze are her curiosity and a healthy dose of irony, capable of subverting not so much the atavistic stereotypes but how we see them, no longer complicit in the dominant culture. An analytical film that also challenges new practices of political correctness.
Daniela Persico
Programmer and critic
