Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf Review: Deconstructing the Armour

Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf introduces its subject not with a quiet biographical sketch, but by immersing the viewer in the life of a figure already at the center of a storm. Munroe Bergdorf, a Black transgender model and activist, is a distinctly British phenomenon whose story reverberates with global questions of identity and speech.

The documentary catches her at a pivotal moment, framing her experiences around the writing of her memoir, Transitional, and her appointment as a UN Women UK Champion. Director Olivia Cappuccini’s film immediately signals its intention to look past the headlines.

It presents a study of the person required to sustain a public persona, one built in the contentious arenas of social media and television panel shows. The film’s premise is an examination of the individual who has weathered these public battles, using an intimate, direct mode of address to explore the space between the symbol and the self. It suggests a personal history with implications that stretch far beyond one person’s life, touching upon the very nature of advocacy in a digital age.

Armour in the Arena

The film locates the core of Bergdorf’s public struggle in specific, high-stakes encounters that illustrate the personal cost of her work. The 2017 incident with L’Oréal serves as a potent case study in the precarious nature of corporate allyship.

Hired as the first transgender model for a UK campaign, she was fired after her social media comments on systemic racism, posted following the Charlottesville rally in the US, were amplified by the British press. The film dissects this as a collision between authentic activism and the risk-averse posture of a global brand, revealing the limits of “woke capitalism” when confronted with an unfiltered voice.

This international incident is complemented by footage of domestic media trials. Her televised appearances, including a debate with Piers Morgan, portray a particular kind of British media spectacle, a forum where her existence is positioned as a topic for debate.

The documentary captures how her nuanced arguments are flattened and twisted, showing the immense weight placed on an individual who becomes a representative for an entire movement. This pressure is further exemplified by the NSPCC’s decision to sever ties with her as a Childline ambassador, a move she attributes to transphobia.

In response, Bergdorf explains her polished, hyper-feminine presentation as a form of “armour,” a consciously constructed visual defense designed to protect her inner self from the aggression of the public square.

Deconstructing the Image

The narrative shifts from the public stage to explore the formative experiences that shaped the activist, rooting her story in a specific English cultural backdrop. Her account of an upbringing in Essex as the only Black child in her school is marked by the pain of bullying and a deep desire to simply fit in.

The film lingers on this sense of isolation, connecting it to broader narratives of the Black British experience in predominantly white spaces. Her journey toward self-acceptance, from discovering a sense of community at the University of Brighton to beginning her medical transition at 24, is portrayed as a reclamation of the identities she once felt compelled to hide.

Director Olivia Cappuccini uses actors to re-enact key memories, a visual technique that interacts powerfully with Bergdorf’s verbal testimony. These sequences do not merely illustrate; they create a layered sense of the past, acknowledging memory as a subjective, reconstructed space.

This approach is particularly affecting when addressing her personal traumas, especially the loss of her former partner, Ava. The film treats this tragedy not as a plot device but as a deep, reverberating wound that informs her present-day resolve.

The dedication of her book and the film itself becomes a conscious act of remembrance, a resistance against the erasure of a life. Her candor about her mental health further dismantles the public-facing armour, revealing the vulnerability beneath the poised exterior.

A Portrait in Defiance

The construction of Love & Rage is as significant as its subject. Olivia Cappuccini’s directorial style subverts the traditional documentarian’s gaze. For much of the film, Bergdorf speaks directly to the lens, a choice that collapses the distance between subject and viewer and grants her authority over her own story.

This confessional pact stands in sharp contrast to the mediated, often hostile clips of her public life, effectively reclaiming her narrative from those who would define her. The structure itself reinforces this purpose. By weaving past and present, the film mimics the non-linear way memory and trauma function, making the cinematic form a reflection of its psychological content.

It refuses the neat chronology of a conventional biopic. The inclusion of her “chosen family”—close friends and managers—provides a supporting chorus, illustrating a vital aspect of queer community-building. The film’s final message rejects easy resolution.

It concludes not with a triumphant victory but with a portrait of defiance and the acceptance of an ongoing struggle. This refusal to offer a tidy, satisfying ending is a political statement, challenging the viewer’s expectation of a simple hero’s journey and presenting a more honest, less sanitized reality of activism. It is a document of persistence.

Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf premiered with a limited UK cinema run on June 10–11, 2025.

Full Credits

Director: Olivia Cappuccini

Writers: Olivia Cappuccini, Shannon E. Riggs, Luis Lopez

Producers and Executive Producers: Andee Ryder, Sofia Ismail Martin, Helen Parker, Ian Bonhôte

Cast / Featured Interviewees: Munroe Bergdorf, Michael Kaufman, Carol Kaufman, David Letterman, Carol Kane, Tim Heidecker, Eric André, Kristin Schaal

Director of Photography (Cinematographer): David Bolen

Editor: Luis Lopez

Composer: Ryder McNair