The first feature film by notorious Canadian musician and performance artist Peaches is a wild transsexual rock opera, screening in conjunction with a new installation and a night of performances.

You might call Peaches Does Herself a transsexual rock opera, or a sex-change jukebox musical — or you might just call it Peaches being Peaches on the big screen.

One of the world’s most beloved perform-ance artists and a legendary transgressive rock ’n’ roller, Toronto-born Peaches has been an icon of the Berlin art scene for more than a decade. Her constantly evolving practice has created a host of famous and indelible videos, performances, installations, lectures and kick-ass concerts. Peaches Does Herself, her first feature film, brings together all of these elements and more, serving as both a rich retrospective of, and whiplash introduction to, this elemental performer’s work.

The film largely takes place on intricately connected sets. It begins with a philosophical lecture that is rudely interrupted by Peaches, who is spurred on by the advice of a sixty-five-year-old stripper to transform into a musician with magical sexual powers. As the story takes the shape of an operetta, Peaches’ popularity grows and she seeks to gratify her fans’ desires by becoming transsexual. She falls in love with a beautiful she-male, but when her heart is broken she must dig deep to find out what she desires and who she truly is. All of this is set to an electro-rock score performed by an ever-growing band, and accompanied by a host of fantastical dancers. The “fourth wall” is only broken at the finale, as Peaches tricycles away, up the street, with a new-found freedom.

Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, Thursday 13-Sunday 16