An official selection of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Gun Hill Road is a tense and complex family drama about a teen embracing her gender identity and a father who must put aside his notions of manhood and reinvestigate his own ideas of what having a “normal” child means.

There is no doubt that Enrique Michael Rodriguez has many ideas of what his young son — and namesake — will become: strong, proud of his Nuyorican heritage, macho…just like Enrique himself. But when Enrique returns home to the Bronx after three years in prison, he finds that he doesn’t know his son Michael at all. Enrique tries to make up for lost time by focusing even more attention on his son, only to realize that Michael is transitioning and spends a lot of time as Vanessa. And Vanessa is struggling to balance school, her poetry, her family, and a boyfriend who prefers private time to public dates. Meanwhile, Vanessa’s supportive mother, Angela, tries to keep her family together in spite of her own volatile personal life.

Three pitch-perfect leads anchor an incredible cast. The always sexy Esai Morales (Caprica, NYPD Blue, Bad Boys) simmers as Enrique, Judy Reyes (Scrubs, OZ) plays Angela with grounded vulnerability, and newcomer Harmony Santana is a true breakout star, shining as Vanessa.