"Tender flesh", a teen-drama whose main character is intersex

• The 10-episode series Chair Tendre is put online this Friday at 6 p.m. on France TV Slash and broadcast at 9 p.m. on France 5.

• The first French series with an intersex main character, Soft Chair received the prize for the best series in French competition at Series Mania.

• Beyond the question of intersex, this teen drama deals accurately and sensitively with adolescent malaise.

A characteristic that affects nearly 2% of the population, and yet a subject that is still taboo!

Until now, when we looked for fiction or documentaries on intersex, we found almost nothing.

The Flesh tender series, put online this Friday at 6 p.m. in full on France.tv Slash and broadcast at 9 p.m. on France 5, follows Sasha, a 17-year-old intersex person.

A

, prize for the best series in French competition at Séries Mania, which deals with this unprecedented subject on French television with sensitivity, sensuality and intelligence.

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Sasha Dalca (Angèle Metzger) is the new high school student, who has just moved to the Landes with her kindly rock'n'roll parents, Cécile and Jérémie Dalca (Daphné Burki and Grégoire Colin, amazing) and her sister Pauline (Saul Benchetrit).

A character in an intersex situation

A few months ago, Sasha was an uneventful boy.

The discovery of her intersex status – hidden by her parents (Daphné Burki and Grégoire Colin) “to protect her” and the doctors, who never stopped trying to “fix” her – turned her life upside down.

“At 17, I met a person who understood at the same age that she was in an intersex situation.

Her whole world was turned upside down This moment when she understood that there was no space thought for her in society was a terrible moment.

This observation revolted me, the desire started from there, ”says Yaël Langmann, the creator, screenwriter and co-director of

, during an interview with Séries Mania.

An intersex person “is born with sexual characteristics which, according to medical standards, correspond neither entirely to the masculine nor entirely to the feminine.

It's not an identity issue, but a biological reality, a healthy variation of the living", recalls Yaël Langmann, who was accompanied in the writing process and on the set by Loé Petit and Lysandre Nury, the co-founders of the Collectif intersex activist.

And to add: “We are doing a political project, but not an activist one.

It's political because we're talking about Sasha who is intersex, but above all we're talking about adolescence, dizziness, feelings.

»

A character in the midst of a teenage crisis

We quickly understand that the parents are overwhelmed by the situation.

"Parents and children evolve at the same time in learning what intersex is", underlines the screenwriter.

And to explain: “At birth, we explain to parents that their children are sick and that we must repair them.

In reality, a person who is born with an intersex body does not need to be fixed at all.

If children are operated on at birth, they have to be followed all their lives, it's terrifying.

This triggers places of violence” A medicalization opposed by the UN which recalls that “these children are perfect as they are!

»

Sasha has only one idea in mind: to discover who she is.

“The idea was to tell a possible course and especially not to fetishize this character by telling his medical course.

We wanted to stick to Sasha's emotions and human experience,” continues Yaël Langmann.

Because if Sasha is in an intersex situation, “in reality, she is absolutely no different from all her friends”.

Through this character and his new clique of friends, Soft Chair tells us about the ungrateful age, the difficult cohabitation with one's body, desires, sexuality, first times, close friendships and increased emotions.

“At 17, you sometimes want to throw yourself out with the bathwater. The world seems violent and at the same time, you are swollen with desire and you feel invincible.

One can be extremely troubled by microscopic things and be strong in the face of terrible dramas.

The idea was through Sasha and all her band, to find this feeling of adolescence, ”explains the director.

We let ourselves be carried away over ten episodes by the staging where the camera always seems to be as close as possible to the emotions and feelings of the characters, by its disarming young performers, and by the subtlety of the subject.

"The idea was to show that we are all

", concludes Yaël Langmann.

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