Mildly engrossing, building to a final-act clash between First and Third worlds that is riveting and highly uncomfortable to watch.
The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Iceland, Philippines, France · 2008
Rated R · 1h 20m
Director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson
Starring Raquela Rios, Olivia Galudo, Stefan C. Schaefer
Genre Documentary, Drama
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Raquela, a transgender sex worker living in the Philippines, dreams of moving to Paris and living a fairytale life. A blend of fact and fiction, this pseudo-documentary follows Raquela as she works to escape the streets of Cebu City and attain the glamorous lifestyle she's always wanted.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Their film is a rarity in that Rios emerges as a vibrant, reflective woman, an individual who refuses to be defined by her transsexuality.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Rios is the glue that holds Johannesson's neither-fish-nor-fowl film together.
The New York Times by Neil Genzlinger
It's like being trapped in a roomful of teenage girls for 80 minutes.
Queen Raquela's plotty elements don't always work: The acting in the story-driving scenes sometimes comes off as amateurish, and the circumstances that send Rios halfway around the world seem contrived. But de Fleur gets an astonishingly good performance from Stefan C. Schaefer.
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