The novel presents Eli as an androgynous boy, castrated centuries before by a sadistic vampire nobleman. The film handles the issue of Eli’s gender more ambiguously: a brief scene in which Eli changes into a dress offers a glimpse of a suggestive scar but no explicit elaboration. When Oskar asks Eli to be his girlfriend, Eli tries to tell Oskar “I’m not a girl”. A female actress plays Eli’s character, but her voice was considered to be too high pitched, so it was dubbed with the voice of voice actress Elif Ceylan. According to an interview with the director, as the film was originally conceived, flashbacks explained this aspect in more detail, but these scenes were eventually cut.