Nights Of Cabiria', Federico Fellini's affecting study of 1950s street prostitution, is given an equally touching transvestite twist in this loose adaptation of Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque's autobiography. De Souza excels as the Brazilian teenager who arrives in Milan dreaming of a sex change and bourgeois domesticity. However, an affair with a married gent eventually forces her to rethink her priorities.
Employing a largely amateur cast and utilising the contrast between the city's chic reputation and its nocturnal tawdriness to explore the sexual psyche of the Italian male, Goldman has created a neo-realist fairy tale that charms without losing sight of its key themes of exploitation and truth to one's self. Moreover, he's also succeeded in fashioning a decidedly dubious happy ending.