Sundance 2025: Trans icons come to life in Zackary Drucker's Enigma

Editor's note: This review contains spoilers for Enigma, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Enigma is for The Girls, but it's also for anyone who understands the importance of knowing where we came from and looking ahead to where we're going.

Zackary Drucker's latest documentary explores the lives of two legends: Amanda Lear and April Ashley. Even though they were both members of the cabaret at Le Carrousel and became famous around the world starting in the 1950s — largely because of their gender and trans status — these two icons navigated their journeys in completely opposite ways.

Ashley, who sadly passed away in 2021, was outed as a trans woman while working as a model and immediately became the face of trans people in Europe. In the 50 years that followed, Ashley constantly made headlines, was featured in interviews, and remained under scrutiny.

Lear, on the other hand, continued to deny, obscure, and obfuscate her life story over the years. She even went by a different name, Peki d'Oslo, while working at Le Carrousel — but changed it to Amanda Lear when she got married. She never looked back.

While rumors about Lear's trans status persisted for the rest of her career, she refused to provide direct answers. She also insisted that she and Peki d'Oslo were not the same person, despite plenty of contemporary news stories, photographs, and documents showing otherwise. This choice allowed Lear to become a global disco star, while Ashley was kicked out of showbiz.

Enigma takes a look at the two diverging paths taken by these women, which not only determined who they were for the rest of their lives but also shaped the lives and identities of countless trans people who came after them.

Filled with beautiful archival footage — such as recent interviews with Ashley — the documentary also includes Drucker's own interviews with trans women who worked at the cabaret with Ashley and Lear. Through Enigma, we get to see more of Bambi, and trans historian Morgan M. Page, and even see Drucker's one-on-one interview with Lear herself.

Lear is exactly the legend and diva you'd want her to be: smiling, brushing off questions, humble-bragging, and acting like the queen that she is. In this documentary feature, she still does her best to refuse to acknowledge her trans status. However, she does reveal the truth if you listen closely and can read between the lines.

Normally, an interviewer asking Lear about her history, gender, and sex is a painful experience that makes you cringe. When Drucker is asking, however, those same questions come across as lovely and respectful, like reaching across the aisle to sincerely (and hopefully) make a connection. In a world where cis people regularly act like they are the ultimate authorities on trans issues, this feels like a breath of fresh air.

When Drucker tells Lear that her legacy includes many trans women, including the filmmaker herself, Lear is reluctant to take credit. But as Drucker says in the film, "pioneers can rarely see the paths they blaze."

For many trans women of my generation, Coccinelle, April Ashley, Bambi, and the rest of the performers at Le Carrousel de Paris in the 1950s were some of the first trans people that we ever heard about. I remember that, after watching Paris Is Burning in a Gender Change in Literature class in my sophomore year of college, I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole to learn more about trans people. As it turned out, this group of European trans women in the 1950s stood out.

I was shocked. I had no idea we had been around for so long. I had no idea that we had been so beautiful, so talented, and so desired, for so long. Here was proof. These women, who were born 50 years before me, had formed communities full of people just like me.

Drucker, who co-directed the Sundance doc The Stroll with Kristen Lovell, is one of the finest documentarians working today. Through her work, Drucker is documenting vital parts of trans history — making sure that no one can deny that we've always been here, highlighting the fact that we will always be here, and underscoring the many ways in which no one can erase us.

Trans history is vital. Trans elders are vital. I feel honored to have seen this film, and that I get to review it.

While it's overwhelming to explain the power of watching trans women at 80 and 90 years old who still are happy, who still have friends and family, and who are still surviving the horrors that politicians, governments, and bigots have thrown at the trans community over the last century, Enigma makes it a little easier to translate those powerful feelings and messages. As you watch these trans icons talking, laughing, and kiki-ing, it's hard to deny the sense of empowerment that comes with it.

Five out of five stars.

Enigma premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025 and is expected to have a wider release later this year.