My Emptiness and I

(Mi vacío y yo)

Adrián Silvestre / Spain / 2022 / 98 min
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  • Guadalajara Int. Film Festival

    Maguey Award Best Film

  • Outfest L.A Film Festival

    Grand Jury Special Mention, Honorable Mention For Performance

  • D'A Film Festival Barcelona

    Honorable Mention

  • Rotterdam Film Festival

  • Malaga Film Festival

    Special Jury Award
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Spanish with English subtitles

With Raphaelle Pérez, Alberto Díaz, Marc Ribera

Director Adrián Silvestre partners with co-writer and lead actress Raphaëlle Perez to create a colorful, layered portrait of a life in flux.

Working in a call center in Barcelona after relocating from France, sensitive dreamer Raphi works through her recent diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Through it all — embarrassing dates, adapting to the rhythms of a new life, candid conversations with an exuberant support group of multigenerational trans women — Raphi chases after an elusive image of modern love that continually shifts and surprises her.

With a star-making performance by Raphaëlle Pérez, this narrative feature debut is a romantic and illuminating story of one woman’s transfeminine experience and an invigorating cinematic experience, destined to become a queer classic.

Press

“Highly Recommended. This film is a valuable addition to a Spanish film collection, but it also transcends language and culture by centering the narrative of trans people as the storytellers of their own lives, presenting an authentic perspective that resonates universally.” – Audra M. Deemer, Head of Acquisitions & Collections, DePaul University, EMRO

“Made with a rare sensitivity and compassion, My Emptiness and I is a study, at once muted and lacerating, of the search for validation of a young trans woman in a world which can offer her no ready-made identities to choose from. Built around a superb, challenging central performance by Raphaëlle Perez, the understated Emptiness seems destined to... confirm Adrián Silvestre as one of Spain’s standout new directorial talents.” – Jonathan Holland, Screendaily

“A beautiful film, unstable and always very conscious of occupying that perfect place between the sublime and, indeed, the ridiculous. Always maximal.” – Luis Martínez, El Mundo

“The world of digital dating and hook-up apps, where each profile offers a representation of oneself, on display in a virtual shop window, is a crucial element of the plot of this film, which calls into question the categories, stereotypes and labels that can constitute obstacles on the road towards fully blossoming in one’s life.” – Alfonso Rivera, Cineuropa

About the Director
Adrián Silvestre is a film director whose work explores the limits between reality and fiction, placing professional actresses alongside real people in his scenes.

Adrian Silvestre - My Emptiness and I - Sediments

Available for Q&As, Masterclasses, and workshops upon request, in English or Spanish.
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Silvestre approaches art practice from the analysis of everyday experiences. His films tend to be preceded by a process of close collaboration with specific communities where the gender perspective is transversally implemented and the empowerment of the participants is fostered.

His first feature film, The Objects of Love (2016), has received numerous international awards, such as FIPRESCI (SEFF).

Sediments (Sedimentos, 2021), his second feature film, won the Feroz Award for best national nonfiction film, presented at BFI London FF, San Sebastian FF, Thessaloniki Documentary FF (Special Jury Prize), Malaga Film Festival, Gottembourg FF, Cinespaña Toulouse (Best Documentary), Outfest Los Angeles (Grand Jury Special Mention), and Newfest NY, among others.

After its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, My Emptiness and I (Mi vacío y yo, 2022) won the Silver Biznaga, Special Jury Prize at the Malaga Film Festival, and Premio Maguey / Best Film at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, among other prizes.

Silvestre premiered May Your Will be Done, his fourth feature film, at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and DocsBarcelona in 2024.

Notes on Film

“My Emptiness and I was created in response to an urge. The urge to portray the life of trans people in first person, not only making them participants in the project, but placing them at the core of the creative process, becoming active subjects, and not objects of representation. Based on that philosophy, we produced Sediments, a feature-length documentary about six trans women, which was released in June 2021 and has since had a great response, receiving more than 50 international selections and 17 awards to date.

Just as I was developing Sediments, I met Raphaëlle Perez, a new member of the group of trans women who were part of my workshops. Raphaëlle gave me the opportunity to read the texts she had self-published about her transition in Barcelona, and I felt that life was giving me a gift. Her intelligence, her immense charisma, her creative potential, her desire to show her story to the world, as well as the strength and precision of her stories, could not go unnoticed. But besides being a gift, life was imposing on me the ethical commitment and responsibility of bringing it to film with truthfulness, respect, and dignity.”

– Adrián Silvestre, Director

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