Emilia Pérez (2024)
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A Mexican cartel leader seeks to disappear and transition into a woman with the help of a lawyer.
The story
Rita Mora Castro, a struggling attorney in Mexico City, takes on the defense of a prominent figure's wife in a murder case. After winning the case, she receives a mysterious and lucrative offer from a client revealed to be a cartel kingpin, Juan "Manitas" Del Monte. The kingpin desires to covertly undergo gender-affirming surgery and begin a new, authentic life as a woman. Rita agrees to assist him, leading to a complex journey involving medical procedures in multiple countries and the eventual creation of a new identity for the cartel leader as Emilia Pérez.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Rita Mora Castro, a struggling attorney in Mexico City, wins a murder case for a prominent figure's wife and is subsequently offered a lucrative deal by the client, cartel kingpin Juan "Manitas" Del Monte. Manitas seeks to undergo gender-affirming surgery and start a new life as a woman. After the surgery, Manitas's wife, Jessi, and their children are moved to Switzerland for safety. Manitas fakes their death and becomes Emilia Pérez. Four years later in London, Rita helps Emilia reunite with her children in Mexico. Emilia eventually establishes a nonprofit to identify the bodies of cartel victims and begins a relationship with Epifanía. Meanwhile, Jessi rekindles a romance with Gustavo. A conflict arises when Emilia becomes aggressive toward Jessi, leading to a kidnapping. During a tense standoff, Emilia reveals her true identity to Jessi. A tragic accident occurs when a car veers off the road, killing Gustavo, Jessi, and Emilia. Rita becomes the guardian of the children, while Epifanía publicly celebrates Emilia's legacy.
- First release year
- 2024
- Runtime (minutes)
- 132
- Production countries
- France
- Original languages
- Spanish; English
- Directors
- Jacques Audiard
- Writers
- Jacques Audiard · writer
- Cast and characters
- Zoe Saldaña · Rita Mora Castro; Karla Sofía Gascón · Emilia Pérez / Juan "Manitas" Del Monte; Selena Gomez · Jessica "Jessi" Del Monte; Adriana Paz · Epifanía Flores; Mark Ivanir · Dr. Wasserman; Édgar Ramírez · Gustavo Brun
- Genres
- musical; crime; drama
- Themes
- gender identity; identity transformation; drug trafficking; justice
- Tone and mood
- musical; dramatic
- Setting
- Mexico City, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, Switzerland, London, and Mexico.
- Premise and plot tags
- transgender; crime; musical; legal drama
- Source material / true-story basis
- Audiard's opera libretto of the same name, loosely adapted from a chapter of the 2018 novel Écoute by French writer Boris Razon.
- Reception
- The film received generally positive reviews from critics in the United States and Europe, but faced significant backlash in Mexico and from LGBTQ commentators.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 70 · scale: 100 · review count: 55; AlloCiné · score: 4.1 · scale: 5 · review count: 38
- Awards and nominations
- Best Film · European Film Awards · win; Best Director · European Film Awards · win; Best Actress · European Film Awards · win
- Production trivia
- The film was originally intended to be an opera libretto in four acts.; The film was the first time Jacques Audiard wrote a film alone.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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