"It’s set in the early 1980s, in a mining town on the dusty edge of nowhere where a ramshackle establishment, something like a bordello in a spaghetti western, is run by a small LGBTQ+ community. By day, they serve up food to worn-out, dust-covered miners; by night, cabaret is performed in drag. The club is also raising a child, 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes), who was abandoned on the doorstep as a baby (possibly by parents who saw how well the club looks after its own)."
"When Lidia is bullied by transphobic local boys, the women of the club come out in force to beat the crap out of the gang. Lidia's adopted mum is Flamenco (Matias Catalan), a transgender woman in love with a Marlon Brando lookalike miner called Yovani (Pedro Munoz), a man with an angelic pout and murder in his eyes. They both have a disease that local people are calling the plague. Yovani blames Flamenco and shows up with a gun."
"The year is 1982, the start of the Aids crisis. The plague serves as an allegorical stand-in for Aids; it has similar symptoms, although it spreads by gazing lovingly into a person's eyes. There is no cure, not even in rich countries. Miners cover their eyes and make the sign of the cross whenever the women of the club walk past them in this barren, spare landscape, which is photographed with desolate beauty by cinematographer Angello Faccini."
"What gives the film its distinct flavour is a slightly feverish tone and dream-like logic. In places, it's hard to see what the magic realism adds, and the script's ideas about gender and gaze feel underexplored. Perhaps in the end, this sense of unreality opens the door to its characters finding love in this harsh and hopeless place. A touching and moving film."
A ramshackle LGBTQ+ club in an early-1980s mining town serves miners by day and performs drag cabaret by night while raising an abandoned child, Lidia. When transphobic boys bully Lidia, the club’s women retaliate violently. Lidia’s adopted mother, Flamenco, is a transgender woman in love with Yovani, a miner who appears gentle but carries murderous intent. Both Flamenco and Yovani have a “plague” that local people fear and blame on them. The plague functions as an allegory for AIDS, spreading through loving eye contact and having no cure. Miners avert their gaze and cross themselves as the club members pass. The film’s feverish, dream-like magic realism and tender emotion frame harsh, hopeless conditions and the possibility of love.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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