Do Mexicans hate Emilia Pérez?

Crime comedy Emilia Pérez, by French director Jacques Audiard, mentions the story of an infamous drug lord who disappears to go to a woman and then returns to win her family.

With emotional music numbers, Netflix production is a Hollywood blow. He has already collected 13 Oscar nominations and has won four Golden Globes.

Despite recognition, the film has caused harsh criticism in Mexico.

Although the plot is in Mexico, Audiard has created his drama in a studio near Paris. And with the exception of Adriana Paz, the cast features non-Mexican actors: Spanish woman Trans Karla Sofia Gascon in the role of the title and American actors Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez in other top roles.

Is “Emilia Pérez” who exploits the Mexican crisis?

“Emilia Pérez is all that is bad in one movie: stereotypes, ignorance, lack of respect, earning money from one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world (mass extinctions in Mexico)”, Cecilia Gonzalez, Mexican journalist living in Argentina, In X.

Mexican cinema Rodrigo Prieto, who works in Hollywood, also criticized that everything at Emilia Pérez seemed “non -authentic” – except for Adriana Paz.

Paz, who plays the widow of a cartel victim in the film, was present at a press conference strongly criticized Audiard’s work. While discussing the situation, he broke into tears and revealed that he had been abducted about 18 years ago.

For decades, Mexico has faced horrifying crimes related to the drug war that includes cartels, with people disappearing on a daily basis – supposedly being victims of kidnapping and out -of -court executions.

By August 2024, the National Register of Disease and Missing Persons (RNPDNO) had recorded a total of 116,386 missing and to date only 40 perpetrators have been sentenced to court.

“State authorities are often involved in crimes,” said Francoise Greve, a human rights network coordinator in Mexico for the German Branch of the International Human Rights Organization. “Very few cases are resolved,” he told DW.

Literature, films for violence in Mexico

The disappearance of people in Mexico is a bitter reality that is often depicted in literature and cinema.

For example, in his novel Olinka (2019), journalist and writer Antonio Ortuno depict a luxurious home complex built by a Mafia manufacturing company. Born in 1976, Ortuno uses literature to settle accounts with the homeland of Guadalajara. As the seat of a strong drug cartel, Guadalahara is also deeply influenced by corruption, white collar crime and drug -related violence.

The Chilean writer of Roberto Bolano’s Magnum Opus, 2666, was released posthumously, a year after the death of the author in 2003. The award -winning novel deals with a series of unbearable murders of women in Mexico.

In 2020, a drama by Fernanda Valadez invited the Identtifying Feature features at the Sundance Film Festival. She tells the story of the Mexican mother who is desperately looking for her missing son.

‘More misleading’

Now Emilia Pérez is giving a new perspective on the crisis. However, many film critics believe that this perspective is harmful.

Mexican writer Jorge Volpi described it as “one of the craziest and most misleading films of the 21st century” in an op-ed for the Spanish newspaper El Pais. To assume that “through a gender transition, the wild and cruel man who has ordered hundreds of murders suddenly turns into an insensitive woman who is committed to the weakest is an unforgivable narrative act juggling,” the author added That even if the film wins awards, it only expresses contempt for victims.

Director Jacques Audiard said he did not do many research on Mexico and that he knew enough about the country. He explained that although his story is based on social and political realities, he never intended to make a documentary on the situation in Mexico or the transition to sex.

“I use an excessive form, the artificiality of the musician and melodrama, to tell my story emotionally,” said the screenwriter and director of the film at the German Daily Taz.

In fact, Emilia Pérez was originally written as opera libretto and has retained the characteristic structure and result of art form: Emotional scenes launch musical numbers. “Here, songs are an integral part of the plot, not just decorative accessories,” Audiard added.

A narrative that hurts in Mexico

Even with the history of Audiard in Mexico, disappearances are always present in the background. One scene in the film shows the wives of the murdered and ignorant men singing the song. Such a widow choir really exists in Mexico, he pointed out the director.

And gender reinstatement is not the focus of the story: “The real question is: I have the right to talk about certain issues? , either in an oral, songs or even dance form? “

“I wanted to go for larger dimensions, to broaden my prospect, to reach a wider audience,” Audiard said. Of course, this has the risk of being accused of simplifying, he said. “And of course I could choose an easier issue. I could spend my life avoiding all sensitive issues.”

Human Rights Coordinator Francoise Greve finds the international attention given to Emilia Pérez particularly problematic: it is “extremely questionable” to depict a boss cartel as an activist for human rights, as proposed in the film.

Of course, he added, freedom of artistic expression means that Audiard “can make a movie in any way he wants”. But no one should ignore how painful and explosive the issue in Mexico is.

“If you take such a matter,” he said, “you should also take responsibility to some extent for the narratives created and how they resonate.” DP