Sometimes groundbreaking films come in small, perfectly wrapped packages, and Iván & Hadoum, screening at BFI London Film Festival, is one of them.
Winner of Best Feature Film at the 40th Teddy Awards, Ian de la Rosa’s quiet, considered tale of love among the commercial greenhouses of Almería, Spain, takes trans storytelling in a new direction. De la Rosa’s natural, organic approach in Iván & Hadoum shines in this sun-drenched tale of forklift driver Iván (Silver Chicón) and newly hired packer Hadoum (Herminia Loh Moreno), as their love grows while expectations, economic status, and cultural barriers try to divide them.
When Hadoum arrives at a commercial greenhouse co-founded by Iván’s late father, Iván is hurriedly lifting pallets from one side of the store to the other, determined to earn the warehouse supervisor role now within the gift of his father’s partner, who owns the company and calls the shots. Iván knows the job is a perfect fit, and that he can do it, despite the constant rejection every time he’s asked. The company is built on social hierarchies: supervisors, forklift drivers, managers, and stock checkers are all ‘local ’, and packers, while also local, happen to have Moroccan heritage, which tends to keep them in their packer role.
Iván knew Hadoum in school before transitioning, and when she starts work, and the supervisor shouts instructions to pack faster, Hadoum immediately sparks Iván’s interest. As they meet outside of work, attraction grows between them, leading to sex. But socioeconomic barriers quickly put their early relationship at risk, despite their love. As Hadoum openly challenges the work culture and pay of the packers, Iván finds his unwavering loyalty to his dad’s ex-business partner, Manuel (Nico Montoya), tested. But it’s a relationship he can’t afford to challenge, as his whole family’s economic freedom and his new promotion to supervisor – the job he longed to achieve – sit in Manuel’s hands. Plus, as Iván’s sister reminds him, much of their debt came from his transition, something the family and their close friends all supported.
Caught between Hadoum, his family, and the man pulling the financial strings, Iván must choose between love and security, and Hadoum must choose between her convictions and love.
What makes Ian de la Rosa’s film so important in the landscape of transgender filmmaking is its focus on love over gender. Iván & Hadoum isn’t about Iván’s transition journey or the challenges it brings within his close family unit. Instead, we have a confident, self-assured and loved trans man finding love with a woman who never questions his gender identity or the love he offers. That doesn’t mean Iván & Hadoum is void of discussions on the challenges Iván faces. Like many LGBTQ+ dramas, Iván quickly discovers that he is accepted fully as long as he remains single and sexless in the eyes of some. Hadoum opens new doors, enabling some to express views they have long kept silent, including those surrounding Iván’s transition. Still, Hadoum’s Moroccan background also shapes much of the community rejection, showing how differing forms of discrimination often intersect in partnerships that defy expectations.
Ultimately, Iván & Hadoum is a film about love against all odds, and the socioeconomic drivers that all too often pull people apart before love has even had the chance to blossom. It’s a quiet, considered, gentle film that draws audiences into its love story not through melodrama, tension, or highly emotional dialogue, but through tenderness, realism, and organic character development.
From Ian de la Rosa’s delicate yet confident direction to Beatriz Sastre’s cinematography, which bathes us in sunlight and beautifully framed moments of intimacy, and a score that uses natural sounds as its base, the film shows thought and care in every frame. But what truly earns Iván & Hadoum its place among the best LGBTQ+ films of the year is the natural, captivating performances of Silver Chicón and Herminia Loh Moreno, who shine as brightly as the sun above Almería. Sometimes groundbreaking films come in small, perfectly wrapped packages, and Iván & Hadoum is one of them.
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