Cinema Without Borders: Emilia Perez

To help him work out his transition plan, Manitas kidnaps and hires attorney Rita Castro (Zoe Saldana), who feels stuck, suffocated and frustrated in a law firm that has little to do with justice and instead specializes in freeing criminals. As wrongdoers buy lawyers, murders are dismissed as suicides, she wonders how much longer she must waste her talent and when she will get the plaudits and cash rewards she deserves. On the other hand, there are also bigger questions. Will she help Manitas change his fate, or will karma finally catch up with him?

As Rita carries out the task—from staging Manitas’s fake death to arranging for a surgeon, from obtaining her new ID to setting up a new home for Annie and her children—the film shifts geography in the blink of an eye, from Mexico City to Tel Aviv to Switzerland and then back to Mexico City again. The outward change of appearance also belies an inner change of heart. With the guilt of young deaths at the hands of cartel crimes overwhelming a remorseful Emilia, she sets out to find redemption by founding a charity to locate their graves and provide relief and closure for their survivors. But will it absolve her of her past? A similar sense of overt virtue and morality permeates the film too, particularly in its expansive but facile look at transphobia and the women’s union with which it deliberately subverts the typical male gangster narrative. But without plumbing its depths, especially when it comes to the issue of transitioning. The “half man, half woman, half dad, half aunt” thing is nothing more than half-baked.

Audiard’s sixth film in competition at Cannes (which now heads to the Toronto International Film Festival in September) did something unprecedented at Cannes: it won Best Actress for its entire cast of amazing women, including Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, Adriana Paz and Karla Sofia Gascon, the first transgender actor to win at Cannes. The award was meant not only to celebrate the ensemble acting, but also to recognize the musical talent that helps bring to life singer Camille and composer Clement Ducol’s arresting score and Damien Jalet’s energetic choreography. It’s the musical spectacle that really makes this film a rollercoaster ride.