When fourteen-year-old Ralph tracks down his biological father, he gets more than he bargained for. Not only is Sid (Debargo Sanyal) of Indian heritage, he is also a she. In other words, his dad is also his mom. Ralph’s reaction? "Cool!"

The kid takes to hanging out at Sid’s apartment through the summer. It’s a learning experience for both of them; Sid has only recently come out as transgender and is contemplating the operation. So she has enough on her plate with her own parents (Zena Daruwalla and Gordon Warnecke), and her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Meanwhile Ralph hasn’t plucked up the courage to tell his mother and stepdad what he’s been up to, or more to the point, with whom…

Writer-director Eisha Marjara’s humanist movie (her first drama) explores myriad questions of identity and twenty first century relationships with oodles of humour, sensitivity and compassion. A good point of comparison might be last year’s feel-good hit The Big Sick, not because of the shared ethnicities, but because both films address thorny, often painful issues of prejudice and ignorance with generosity, optimism and warmth. The performances are excellent across the board, but the rapport between Jamie Mayers and the extraordinary Debargo Sanyal is the clincher here.

"Heartwarming and an absolute delight." Lucy Lau, Georgia Straight