The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (2008)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson

Writers:

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson (screenplay)
Benedikt Jóhannesson (writer)

Release Date:

10 October 2008 (Iceland)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

A Cinderella Story

Plot:

Raquela, a transsexual from the Philippines, dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City for a fairy tale life in Paris.

Plot Keywords:

Plastic Surgery | Semi Documentary | Road Movie | Porn Star | Adventurer

Awards:

3 wins

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Raquela Rios	...	Herself
Stefan C. Schaefer	...	Ardilo, Michael (as Stefan Schaefer)
Olivia Galudo	...	Olivia (also as Via Galudo)
Brax Villa	...	Aubrey
Valerie Grand Einarsson	...	Vala Einarsson (also as Valerie Grand) (as Valeria Grand Einarsson)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Amor Alingasa	...	Amor
Raniel Dave Balasabas	...	Young Raquela friend
Ren Christian Balasabas	...	Young Raqulea
Margret Eggertsdottir	...	Horse shepard
Edith Galudo	...	Via's Mom
Marcus Kalberer	...	Johnny K
Hronn Kristinsdottir	...	Woman in Fish Factory
Luis Labandero	...	Pimp
Archie Modequillo	...	Clerk
Reynaldo Palatulon	...	Taxi driver
Ingibjorg Sigurdardottir	...	Lonely Older Woman
Eggert Horgdal Snorrason	...	Driver Fish Factory
Alexsis Yap	...	Joselito

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, language and some nudity.

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

Iceland | Philippines | France | Thailand

Language:

Icelandic | Visayan | English | Thai

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:14 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Cicala Filmworks

Trivia:

The film is inspired by actual people and events -- was originally supposed to be a documentary but was changed to a semi-fiction feature.

Hopping into the puddles of The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela

*full review at nonetheless fiction dot blog spot dot com..click Queen Raquela at the Index..

1. "Though I believe that this film will present the harsh realities my fellow women of transgender experience face and could possibly touch my countrymen to be fair to us, using the term ladyboy is promoting a term that robs us of any sense of dignity. If this film is shown in the Philippines, I can already imagine the horror of being called a ladyboy, along with the usual terms of mockery used by Filipinos to call and taunt girls and women like me. I do hope that you do realize how demeaning and dehumanizing the term is." On the 15th of July 2007, Olaf De Fleur received my email, which cautioned him about using the word ladyboy in the title of his feature film, which was The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela…a Cinderella story with a ladyboy. Try goggling the term and then contrast the results with what you will get by using either transgender or transsexual women, I reckon that you will get my drift. If not, then what I did may be taken as a self-indulgent, pretentious, impertinent, nuisance attempt to demand political correctness. But De Fleur replied immediately and with sensitivity - not the one I expected.

2. The first part confirmed the removal of the term in the poster, on its website, and in scenes where removing it will not affect the film's integrity. He ended it with a fetching close: "I'm very happy to listen to what you have to say - and, in fact, I value it deeply that you spotted this film and you show this care towards the subject. Trust me, so do I."

He invited our support group, the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP), to prescreen the film with Arleen Cuevas, his Philippine producer. Together with Dee Mendoza, one of the founding members of STRAP, I attended the prescreening on the 29th of July. After the film, Ms Cuevas asked for our feedback...Dee pithily put hers in just two words: Very Nice. The glint in her eyes suggested sincerity. I had the same sparkle, but out of my mouth was a nondescript comment, "watching the film shattered my initial fear about our existence being exoticized and our lives being sensationalized."

When I got home, I played my complimentary copy - again, and again, and again. After the third time...tears burned my eyes. It felt like I had cried my most profound tears. I should have said this: "I got something more than mere political correctness can ever give. It was more real, significant, liberating, personal, and sincere. It made me cry, laugh, smile, angry, depressed, pessimistic, optimistic, proud, and think – a lot. The film did everything to me except lie. Definitely no lies but just everything Raquela promised at the beginning: Only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." And this is not from my mouth but from my heart.

3. This film tells a story of a human being playing a role in this drama –or tragedy or comedy – we claim life. Just like each of us, Raquela's role has its own script, influencing context, and prescribed performance. Hers is the intertwined role of being the "other" Filipina woman and being an Asian lady boy dancing at "The Stage" of some Western man's fantasy.

Raquela plays this role in all its flamboyancy, ugliness, and inhumanity, with an unbelievably brutal honesty...she is everything I expect her to be: an exotic, pretty, sexy, entertaining, funny, and libidinous…object.

4. In this reel, De Fleur mirrored the real without cosmetics. He presented The Stage without the glamor and the allure it promises to the performers it lures.

.... Certainly, De Fleur exploited Raquela; but I do not know how this is distinguishable from the way any other artist exploit their subjects. What I am very sure of is that De Fleur did this not in the same way Raquela and other third-world girls like her are exploited by their pimps and pornographers.

Raquela's pimp and pornographer objectifies her existence, turns her (un)desirable body into a product to be consumed, and uses her abject status as the foundation of a perversely profitable empire. None of these seem to be present in how De Fleur used Raquela for his film.

Instead of exhibiting an object, De Fleur lets us experience a person with a story to tell and not with a body to sell. Raquela's pornographer sells a desirable object while her filmmaker reveals a human being with desires - just like everyone of us.

We experience Raquela's world outside The Stage. We feel her fears and her frustration. We understand her desperation. We laugh not at her but at her humor and with her.

5. So did this film show the harsh realities my fellow women of transgender experience face? Blatantly. Did it promote a term that robs us of any sense of dignity? Surely it used this term, but it promoted not robbed our dignity. Can it possibly touch my countrymen to be fair to us? I am not sure...

What I am sure of is that Raquela through De Fleur's camera has demonstrated that the role of being a ladyboy is just like any role in life: it can be rejected and dumped. One just needs to find and muster the courage to do this...Sometimes this courage can be found in a place like Iceland...Sometimes the obstacles can be very intimidating. Sometimes it comes easily...Sometimes it is a feature film by an Icelandic director with a Cebuana lead actress...