Trans Memoria, the first feature film from Swedish artist Victoria Verseau, is the documentary diary of her return to Thailand, the place of her transition in 2012, and her journey to deal with the challenges before and after. It is set to world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this Saturday.

The film, screening in the Proxima competition section of the 58th edition of KVIFF in the scenic Czech spa town, sees Verseau navigating uncertainty amplified by her friend Meril’s death, as well as discussing challenges faced by trans women.

Now, the trailer for the film has made its debut. “‘Never be yourself.’ That’s what the told us,” one friend says to Verseau in one of the scenes featured in the trailer. “It is a fact that Meril killed herself,” Verseau shares in another emotional clip from the movie. “And I have to digest it.”

The fest website shares this description of Trans Memoria. “The conceptual artist adopts an almost archaeological approach to the past and lays bare the process of writing a personal story that is intrinsically linked to the creation of her own identity. In this deeply felt debut, she reveals the joyful aspects and also the dark recesses of transition.”

KVIFF 2024 kicks off on Friday and runs through July 6. Viggo Mortensen’s feminist western The Dead Don’t Hurt opens the fest, with Christos Nikou’s Fingernails, starring Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed, closing it.

View the full trailer for Trans Memoria, and the newly unveiled poster, below.