A RED-HOT CHILE PEPPER
DANIELA VEGA SHINES BRIGHTEST IN A TRULY BRILLIANT OSCAR-NOMINATED FOREIGN-LANGUAGE TRANS DRAMA
WORDS: GUY LODGE
FILMS
FYI
Originally, Daniela was hired as a consultant on trans issues but won over director Lelio
FILM OF THE MONTH
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes
We may have recently enjoyed a boom in gay-themed cinema, but transgender stories remain a rare commodity on screen. All the more reason, then, to celebrate this uncompromising triumph from Chile, which ought to make an international star out of charismatic trans actress Daniela Vega. She plays a young nightclub singer coldly faced with the anti-trans prejudice of her older lover’s family after he suddenly dies. And she’s a forceful, acutely emotive presence, grounding a film that finds ample room for joy, humour and a bit of glitter amid its dark realism, as our heroine asserts her right to grieve, love and live in the open. It has earned director Sebastián Lelio comparisons to Pedro Almodóvar, and not unworthily so. Cross your fingers for this heart-breaker at the Oscars. 2 March