Morrer como um homem

Filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues is fascinated by transformations and here tells the tragic story of a Lisbon drag queen who progressively loses control of her body. Before she gets ready for the last great transformation at the end of her career, she and her young lover get lost in the magical realm of the shimmering Maria Bakker, a safe space for those excessive souls who find themselves at war with social norms. Rodrigues works with elements of the musical and the melodrama in surprisingly intimate fashion to get ever closer to a great figure with suitable fragility, with his film itself becoming ever harder to grasp. (Jan Künemund) – “Tonia’s tragic failure and her subsequent, then truly divine triumph form the material for a great, but also deeply harrowing lament, which can only transform itself into an equally grand, deeply moving utopia by the end.” (Sascha Westphal, sissy)