May 10, 2023

Transgender Coming-of-Age Short Story "All Those Sensations In My Belly" Comes Online

Marko Dješka's coming-of-age short film "All Those Sensations in My Belly" is now available on Vimeo.

Released in 2020, the short was screened in competition at a number of prestigious film festivals, including Palm Springs, Vilnius, Annecy, and Ottawa, winning Best Screenplay at the latter.

In All Those Sensations in My Belly, Matia Anna Prechet tells the story of several important milestones in her life. In this story, the protagonist struggles to find a genuine and intimate relationship with a heterosexual man during her transition from male to female. But at its core, it is also about Mattia learning to accept herself and not take life too seriously.

While there is sadness in Matia's frequent loneliness, the film also has a wonderful sense of humor. The animation is often playful, much like a cartoon where the characters squash and stretch to meet the animator's needs. Traumatic scenes of life-changing events are often interspersed with whimsical passages that serve to paint a more holistic picture of the protagonist's life.

This is perhaps best illustrated in the film's nightclub scene. It is fun, energetic, and full of bright colors, but at the same time truly frightening. One minute you are bouncing your chair to the bass-driven music as Mattia traipses across the dance floor. The next moment, your heart races as she fights to escape a violent sexual assault in a club bathroom.

The short story unfolds chronologically, and when Mattia finally realizes that she is a woman, the aesthetic is transformed. The backgrounds are colored, the characters are more detailed, and her world, while not yet perfect, becomes a more inviting place. Again, the contrast serves to make the short story feel more authentic.