'Emilia Perez' lauded in Hollywood but criticized in Mexico

by Samir Tounsi

Despite its huge international success, including a leading 13 Oscar nominations, "Emilia Perez" faces criticism in Mexico, where the transgender narco-musical has been accused of trivializing raging drug-related violence.

French director Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language production shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie on Thursday, after winning four Golden Globe Awards.

It will vie for the Oscars for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international film, as well as multiple song, score and sound nods.

But in Mexico, where a spiral of cartel-related violence has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the reaction has been less enthusiastic.

"The film trivializes the problem of the missing in Mexico," argues a petition on the Change.org website that had more than 11,000 signatures calling for the movie to be pulled before its scheduled Mexican release on Thursday.

"It is an insensitive film, disrespectful to our culture that goes far beyond drug trafficking and the pain of thousands of families," it added.

Angie Orozco, mother of one of the more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico, told local media that while she did not object to "Emilia Perez" being a musical, "it should be approached in a respectful way."

"I hope that we can make use of all this noise, going beyond the superficial," she said.

The film stars Karla Sofia Gascon as a bloodthirsty narco who, after transitioning to life as a woman, helps relatives of the missing. The movie also features "Avatar" star Zoe Saldana, singer-actress Selena Gomez and Mexican actress Adriana Paz.

Gascon became the first openly trans acting Oscar nominee, in the best actress category, while Saldana was nominated for best supporting actress.

In stark contrast, the frosty reception in Mexico began in October at the Morelia Film Festival, where the film drew lukewarm applause.

Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto ("Barbie," "Killers of the Flower Moon"), launched an early salvo late last year against "Emilia Perez," which was mainly filmed in a studio in France.

Apart from the presence of Paz, the film "feels inauthentic and it really bugs me," he said in an interview with Hollywood news outlet Deadline.

"Especially when the subject matter is so important to us Mexicans. It's also a very sensitive subject," he added in reference to drug-related violence.

Audiard has rejected criticism that the film misrepresented Mexico, but acknowledged on Thursday in an interview with AFP that he perhaps "handled it clumsily."

Ahead of the nominations, he told AFP in Bogota said that some scenes in the film deliberately sought to "defy credulity" and that his goal was to tell stories that are "both local and universal."

"It's a Spanish-language film that was shot in Paris. It's a mongrel film," he said.

- 'Clumsy prejudices' -

Mexican writer Jorge Volpi called the production "one of the crudest and most misleading films of the 21st century."

In an article in the newspaper El Pais, Volpi argued it "embodies all the clumsy prejudices against gender transitions," while still praising Gascon's "meticulous work."

In contrast, Gomez -- a third-generation Mexican American -- raised eyebrows in the land of her ancestors for her accent when speaking Spanish.

Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez described her performance as "indefensible," though he later apologized.

The film has also been roasted by some social media users.

"'Emilia Perez' is everything that is bad in a film: stereotypes, ignorance, lack of respect, making money from one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world (mass disappearances in Mexico)," Cecilia Gonzalez, a Mexican journalist living in Argentina, wrote on X.

There have been some notable exceptions, however: Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro described Audiard as "one of the most amazing filmmakers alive."

"It's so beautiful to see a movie that is cinema," he gushed in a conversation with Audiard at the Directors Guild of America, according to a video posted by The Hollywood Reporter.

Audiard said he spent more than four years researching for "Emilia Perez."

But "at some point you have to stop doing research because...otherwise you end up doing a documentary," he added.

In a nod to the criticism, he said at a recent presentation in Mexico: "If things seem shocking in 'Emilia,' I would be ready to apologize."

"It's an opera and an opera is not very realistic."

© Agence France-Presse