To Die Like A Man

João Pedro Rodrigues’ slow, meditative To Die Like A Man features several scenes where people walk idly through the woods or the park, partially obscured by the flora as they talk about special plants that have been grown in labs, and whether there’s a natural way that men and women should behave. Nature is an especially important subject for the movie’s heroine, Fernando Santos, a pre-operative transsexual who’s the main attraction at a Lisbon drag club. She’s been consulting with a doctor about having her penis refashioned into a vagina. (“Nothing is discarded,” the doctor explains, restating one of the movie’s themes. “Everything is turned into something else.”) But Santos hesitates, because she’s worried about whether God will approve of the change, and whether this will drive the final wedge between herself and her gay-soldier-in-denial son, Chandra Malatitch. So instead, she goes on a trip into the country with her junkie lover, Alexander David. There, they find two spiritually centered drag queens who offer a sense of perspective.