This highly acclaimed and brilliantly crafted drama is based on the true story of Brandon Teena - shot dead after his trans-gender secret is leaked to the locality.
Starting off life as Teena Brandon, the teenage girl from Nebraska feels like she is lost - not comfortable with her body, confused about sexuality and generally very unhappy, she decides to reinvent herself as a man.
She then moves to the smalltown community of Falls City, Nebraska where she/he is accepted as one of their own by a group of hard-drinking men as one of their own and soon had the small rural community totally enchanted.
Here, Brandon successfully pulls off portraying a man unbeknownst to the women he's dating, eventually falling in love with Lana Tisdel (Chloe Sevigny). He also befriends Lana's friends John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom Nissen (Brendon Sexton III).
At first, Brandon's new friends like him and treat him as a buddy. But after being checked by police for a minor misdeamour Teena's true sexual identity is leaked to the local press and spreads across the sleepy town like wildfire and this deception soon triggers a spiral of horrific violence that ends in murder.
Kimberly Peirce's film explores the cintradictions of American youth and identity through the true life and death of Brandon Teena. What emerges from a dustcloud of mayhem, desire and murder is a story of a young American drifter searching for love, a sense of self and a place to call home.
Hilary Swank received a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Brandon Teena.
Boys Don't Cry is a Film programme that first aired in 1999 and has been classified a 18 certificate.
