A Fantastic Woman

Without being in the least graphic nor particularly violent, this is still quite a harrowing watch. It’s all centred on the story of “Marina” (Daniela Vega). She’s a trans nightclub performer who just happens to be in a loving relationship with the older, and wealthier, “Orlando” (Francisco Reyes). They have a night of rough and tumble after celebrating her birthday but it turns out that his ticker isn’t so great and she ends up having to rush him to the hospital. Once there, the expected tragedy strikes them but believe it or not, that is just the start of her problems as the police begin to probe and question her explanation of events whilst his family take a view that she can just go to hell. Gradually, as she becomes more and more exposed to the thoughtless cruelty and loneliness - not to mention her own feelings of grief and despair - we begin to share in her hopelessness. There’s not so much original about the plot here, it’s a story that has been told in various guises many times before, but the effort from Vega is borderline visceral as her character finds herself almost under siege from an array of people she didn’t know but who chose not to believe that she could ever have loved “Orlando” or been loved by him in return. It’s a pretty scathing indictment of societal attitudes to trans people, certainly, but it’s also fairly brutal to those where there is an age gap, a wealth gap, indeed just about anyone who doesn’t conform to the norms. The police, here, are especially vicious but that’s due, as much as anything, to their unsympathetic indifference to her own plight. The production is not the best, it has to be said, and neither the editing nor the camerawork are anyone’s finest work, but the story has a truth to it that’s touching, infuriating and worth a watch.