A PERFECTLY NORMAL FAMILY
DENMARK
Director: Malou Reymann
Writers: Malou Reymann, Rune Schjøtt, Maren Louise Käehne
Cast: Kaya Toft Loholt, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Rigmor Ranthe, Neel Rønholt
Genre: Family drama, LGBTQ+, Coming-of-age
93 minutes: Danish with English subtitles – 2020
World Premiere – Rotterdam International Film Festival (Opening Film) | Best Nordic Debut – Göteborg Film Festival | Official Selection – Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Eleven-year-old Emma thinks she has a perfectly normal family—until the day her father, Thomas, reveals that he is transgender and begins transitioning into Agnete. What follows is a gentle but powerful exploration of a family reconfiguring itself in the face of emotional upheaval and societal scrutiny.
Seen entirely through Emma’s perspective, the film captures the confusion, awkwardness, and ultimately the resilience of a child trying to understand what it means when someone you love becomes someone new. Her older sister, Caroline, adjusts quickly. Their mother, Helle, files for divorce. But Emma finds herself struggling—especially as the kids at school start to mock her for having a dad who now wears dresses.
Based on director Malou Reymann’s own life experience, this quiet and compassionate debut balances perspectives with warmth and subtlety. Instead of dramatizing the transition process, it focuses on the nuanced emotional terrain of acceptance, identity, and unconditional love. With understated performances and emotional authenticity, A Perfectly Normal Family is a film that invites empathy and conversation.
“An admirably unsensational account of a family adjusting to an unforeseen crisis of an unusual kind.”
— Film Review
“A trans drama told from the heart…Malou Reymann makes her debut feature with this gentle, open-hearted drama based on her own childhood experience of her dad transitioning to female.”
— The Guardian
“A film which acknowledges that children can love a parent and respect their decision, while still suffering from the fallout of that choice.”