The Danish GirlA

Plot Summary

The film opens in 1926 in Copenhagen where a portrait artist Gerda Wegener asks her husband, a famous landscape painter Dinar Wegener to fill in as a female model when the lady was late for the assignment. That simple incident unravels real identity. He was never the man he was made out to be, but a woman named Lili Elbe. A series of incidents go on to prove that Lili is insperable from Einar. A progression, first temporary and then irreversible, leaves behind Einar's identity and Lili takes command and demands a life she had never got. When he is taken for medical help, the doctors declare him insane forcing him and Gerda to flee to Paris. Gerda's portraits of Lili get famous but Gerda focuses on tracking down a single art dealer named Hans, Einar's childhood friend. (Hans had been the first boy that Einar had ever kissed). Hans and Gerda's mutual attraction causes problems as she is navigating her changing relationship to Lili/ Einar, but his longtime friendship and affection for Lili lead him to play a supportive role for each.

A sympathetic doctor convinces Lili to undergo one of the very first instances of sex reassignment surgery with the help of a two-part procedure - first remove Einar's external genitalia and then, after recovery, fashion a vagina. Lili is eager to become a woman and takes the bold step. Naturally, she cannot survive the harsh procedure and succumbs to it.