The Girl in Tails

Karin Swanström's delightful gender-bending comedy, based on a popular Swedish play. Katja, a spirited young woman about to graduate, has nothing to wear for the ball — so she borrows her friend's brother's evening suit and goes as a man. What begins as a lark becomes something more complicated when she discovers how differently the world treats her in trousers: doors open, conversations change, and romantic entanglements multiply. The film is charming, briskly paced, and surprisingly modern in its treatment of gender performance, playing with ideas about identity and social expectation that feel remarkably contemporary. A rarely seen gem of Swedish silent comedy that deserves a much wider audience.