Trailer Watch: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Mutt
The trailer arrives today for Mutt, the feature debut of writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz. The film premiered at Sundance in January (where star Lío Mehiel received the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Acting, becoming the first trans actor to do so), before subsequently screening at Berlinale (winning the Generation 14plus—Best Film award) and closing out this year’s New Directors/New Films. The trans coming-of-age film will open at New York City’s Film Forum later this summer.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Feña (Mehiel), a young trans guy bustling through life in New York City, is afflicted with an incessantly challenging day that resurrects ghosts from his past. Laundromats, subway turnstiles, and airport transfers are the hectic background to this emotional drama that overlaps past, present, and future. Settling the disharmony of transitional upheaval in relationships familial, romantic, and platonic is Feña’s task at hand, and his resulting juggling act is equal parts skillful, fumbling, and honest. In negotiating his obliqueness, the poignant moments he finds between himself and others – as the distance between them closes – are warm, true, and touching.
Mutt will open via Strand Releasing on August 18. Read our interviews out of Sundance with the film’s DP Matthew Pothier and editor Adam Dicterow, as well as Lungulov-Klotz’s answer to our annual Sundance Question for directors.