LA TRAVESTIE - LE

LA TRAVESTIE - LE

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(Yves Boisset, 1988, 109 mins)
Release date: 20 July 2026
Limited Edition Blu-ray (World premiere)

A stark departure from his other works, Yves Boisset’s La Travestie is a tactically abrasive look at patriarchy and identity. Lawyer Nicole (Zabou Breitman, La Crise) is driven by frustration and male hypocrisy in both her personal and professional lives to leave her law firm and her hometown, and to reinvent herself as a man.

Arriving in Paris, Nicole makes friends, and soon those friends turn to lovers, and lovers turn to enemies. She suffocates in the identities she creates and lets rejection make a villain of her, until insecurities turn to tragedy and she has nowhere to turn.

Centring on female psychosexuality, without demonisation, the film presents challenging gender dynamics and trans imagery at a time when neither was common within mainstream cinema. It also utilises genre tropes to complex ends, never losing sight that it is, first and foremost, a character study with much to say about the plight of women in contemporary France in the late 1980s.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

  • 4K restoration from the original camera negative
  • Original mono audio
  • Girls and Boys Come Out to Play (2026, 14 mins): video essay by film critic and historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the film’s themes of gender and power
  • Location report (1987, 4 mins): extract from the French television programme Midi 3 Auverge, featuring interviews with director Yves Boisset and actor Zabou
  • Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials
  • Script gallery: complete dialogue and continuity script
  • New and improved English subtitles
  • Limited edition exclusive 32-page booklet with new essay by Georgia Humphreys, a look at Alain Roger, author of the film’s source novel, featuring extracts from the original press kit, an overview of critical responses, and film credits
  • World premiere on Blu-ray
  • Limited edition of 4,000 copies for the UK and US

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BBFC cert: 18
REGION A/B
EAN: 5060697925456