’Gen_’ review: A Milan hormone specialist treats fertility and gender issues

Dir: Gianluca Matarrese. France/Switzerland/Italy. 2025. 104mins

The worlds of IVF therapy and gender affirmation might look like uncommon bedfellows however they arrive collectively below the care of Dr Maurizio Bini, a soft-spoken medic at Milan’s Niguarda public hospital who specialises in hormone therapy. Gianluca Matarrese’s non-sensationalist and observational documentary transports us inside Dr Bini’s consulting rooms within the run-up to his retirement. Whereas the sheer variety of sufferers searching for assist means Matarrese eschews the kind of starting to finish of therapy arcs typically favoured by many documentarians, he as an alternative invitations us to fall into Dr Bini’s rhythm of approaching every affected person individually and equally.

This humanistic movie invitations us to see past the charged rhetoric

Matarrese continues to show a formidable work-rate with eclectic topics, which have lately included the education-set TV documentary Les Beau Parleurs and docufiction L’expérience Zola. Given the present sizzling potato political nature of fertility therapy and transgender healthcare within the worldwide sphere, it’s not stunning Gen_ is already notching up its second competition look at Thessaloniki Documentary Movie Pageant after its premiere in Sundance. Extra competition dates appear extremely probably, together with streaming additional alongside the road.

Dr Bini is an affable and heat presence on the coronary heart of the movie, which additionally captures him in his off-hours foraging for mushrooms. “What I like about them,” he tells a affected person, “Is folks don’t know there are women and men.” The moments spent outdoors his workplace emphasise the medic’s reference to the pure world in addition to offering lyrical interludes, the place the rating from Matarrese’s common composing collaborators Cantautoma can take flight and assist to interrupt up the again and forths throughout his desk. Music can also be invited into the hospital at one level as an expert violinist turns as much as serenade the embryos – one other indication that Dr Blini’s strategy, whereas rooted in science, has a psychological dimension. 

Inside his workplace, the digicam is hand-held and fly-on-the wall model, giving an intimate sense of proximity, whereas objects that sometimes obscure our view are used to subtly protect the anonymity of sure sufferers. 

Dr Bini is pragmatic and patient-focused in his strategy, “Medical doctors typically must make choices between what is correct and what’s authorized,” he says, referring to a current change in Italian regulation that has seen the higher age for IVF therapy restricted to 46. He’s equally down-to-earth in his dealings with transgender sufferers, explaining their choices and their place below the regulation. Which means that, for instance, he explains {that a} couple can at present undertake however, if one formally adjustments their gender marker, that won’t be legally attainable.

This data of the regulation is matched by his compassion, as we see him reassuring numerous sufferers – not simply in Italian but in addition in Arabic and Mandarin Chinese language. Dr Bini’s clear explanations imply this documentary is info wealthy for the viewer. He not solely lays out the varied impacts of fertility and hormone therapy, however is seen navigating moral points, together with the selection of sperm and egg donors. That is additionally about wider pastoral care, as he affords to name up kin of a trans man to assist clarify the scenario to them, gently however firmly tackling prejudice. His calm assurance is shifting, as we see the aid washing over lots of his guests, each cisgender and transgender, just because he recognises them instantly for who they’re and what they need.  

Whereas there’s a specific amount of repetition concerned in Dr Bini’s dealings, it demystifies his work and serves to emphasize his fixed alertness to the wants of every particular person.  Information reviews heard at the beginning of the movie and afterward a automobile radio point out the excessive voltage nature of the political  debate that swirls round fertility and transgender rights. This humanistic movie invitations us to see past the charged rhetoric to the truth of the life-enriching fulfilment Dr Bini is bringing to these in his care.