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Amos Lassen wrote on 07/22/2011:

“Open” is a unique film that comes as a complete surprise and it is inspired by music legend Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Omdge. The cast is composed of transpeople and hermaphrodites. These people are pioneers in the world of transsexuality and we see just how many possibilities exist out there for them. While on the festival circuit, the film collected prizes at almost everywhere it was shown and it is a real eye opener. This is Bryan Yuzna’s film and he looks as if he is headed for quite a career in filmmaking. “Open” is the first American film to ever win the Teddy jury prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

“Open” is about Cynthia (Gaea Gaddy), a young hermaphrodite who meets Gen (Tempest Crane), and Jay, (Jendeen Forberg), who are in the process of recovering from plastic surgery and she hears of Pandrogony which happens when two people merge their facial features so that they reflect the evolution from “separate identities into one unified entity”. This inspires Cynthia and she leaves her husband and her modern suburban lifestyle and begins a road trip with Gen through the 20th century. At the same time, Syd (Morty Diamond), a transman, meets a young punk guy named Nick (Daniel Luedtke). Syd and Nick begin to fall in love and what is interesting that this love is for the first time with someone of the opposite sex. The love that develops forces them to face the fact that hormone treatments have changed both sex and relationships. To me, it seems that the theme of the film is how some transsexuals can design their identity through the use of plastic surgery and yet still return to their born biology.
The movie looks at two extreme sex change cases and change that is coming in the future. The first case is a transsexual couple in which the two always have the same operations and this is the earlier mentioned Pandrogyny. The second case is one in which the male partner is pregnant because he was born a female biologically and we see that testosterone did not affect his ability to conceive a child.
The film actually deals with identity and the pluralization of possible self-images and the changes in relationship models. The ideas here question gender theories and give us some new ideas to think about. The diversity in America surely goes along with this and the stereotypes that exist are blown to bits.
At the end of the film, the screen turns white as if to say that conclusions have not been reached. We see human identity as a blank slate that has yet to be written on and it is up to each individual to do the writing. This is a film that is not to be mistaken for science fiction—the cast consists of real transpeople, and a hermaphrodite. They give us an in-depth look at what we can call pioneers in the new trends about gender. All kinds of gender crossing permutations are seen here. Here we see characters who strive to create new kinds of love and identity in a world that has marginalized them.