Ivan runs into a former schoolmate at the Almería greenhouse where they both work, and their mutual attraction leads to a night of confidences and sex on the beach. It is, as the director says ofIvan & HadoumIan de la Rosa (Granada, 1988) describes it as "a classic love story with characters that aren't," because Ivan is a trans man and Hadoum is the rebellious daughter of North African migrants. This is perhaps what allows them to accept each other naturally and without prejudice. But the film, a Catalan co-production premiering this Friday at the Berlinale in the Panorama section, stems from overcoming the conflict with trans identity, a theme the director, who trained as a chess player, already explored eleven years ago in his short film. Victor XX"Now the conflict has to do with other things, with choosing what kind of person you want to be and empowering yourself through love and desire," explains De la Rosa, who in 2022 was, with the short film Farrucas, the first trans filmmaker to win a Gaudí award