As far as LGBTQIA+ stories go, 20,000 Species of Bees isn’t the best at talking about its themes of identity and acceptance in a way that doesn’t come off as clunky. But even with its on-the-nose dialogue and inconsequential subplots, director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren gives everything the warmth and the softness it needs to feel sincere despite everything. And no matter what, the film is always drawn back to the lead performance by Sofía Otero, who provides such a vivid image of this young trans girl’s interior life that the world around her character begins to feel either more suffocating or more beautiful to behold.
"While there is much to be compelled by narratively, formally the film offers less intrigue."
— Caitlin Quinlan
"Warmly humanist and deeply empathetic first feature… announcing the arrival of a bold new filmmaking voice."
— Mark Kermode
Lucía is an eight-year-old girl, who sometimes struggles as the world tries to catch up with the fact that she is trans. As the summer holidays pass, she explores her femininity alongside the women of her family who at the same time reflect on their own femininity.
While on a family vacation in the countryside, an eight-year-old girl and her mother struggle to come to terms with the daughter's identity.
What makes Otero's performance so different from and so much better than many adult-aged cis actors playing trans characters is how her focus is rarely ever on specific physical tics or signs to indicate that her character is trans. In other words (as obvious as it sounds) she just excels at the fundamental skill of internalizing how her character must be feeling, then interacting with her scene partners accordingly. And all of this actorly instinct comes off as incredibly natural; it's a powerful performance of such vulnerability that you almost feel the reflex to reach into the screen and protect her whenever she starts shedding tears.
That this child actor found more empathy for this performance than many adults can muster is pretty damning.
