One of the buzziest films this awards season, Emilia Pérez is set to drop on Netflix on November 13. Directed by Jacques Audiard, it is a French-made musical crime film following the titular Emilia (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), a cartel kingpin who hires a lawyer (Zoe Saldaña) to help her transition to being the woman she has always wanted to be and start a new life.
It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early in 2024, winning Best Actress for its ensemble cast, including Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. Emilia Pérez was also up for the Palme d’Or (which ultimately went to Sean Baker’s Anora) and took home a directing jury prize for Audiard. Notably, Gascón also became the first openly trans actor to win an acting award at the Cannes Festival.
If the film’s reception overseas was not enough of an indicator of its critical success so far, Emilia Pérez has been receiving serious domestic award rumors as well. Sources like Gold Derby predict a Best Picture nomination, as well as acting nominations for the majority of the core cast. Considering how dense Emilia Pérez is both thematically and politically, here’s a guide to make sense of its messaging and ending.
Introducing Emilia
Release Date November 13, 2024
Cast Karla Sofía Gascón , Zoe Saldana , Selena Gomez , Adriana Paz , Edgar Ramirez , Mark Ivanir , Eduardo Aladro , Emiliano Edmundo Hasan Jalil , James Gerard , Eric Geynes , Agathe Bokja , Chun-Ting Lin , Stéphane Ly-Cuong , Line Phé , Pascal Toussirot , Karla Lazo
Runtime 130 Minutes
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Emilia Pérez begins with Rita Mora Castro, a down-on-her-luck lawyer living in Mexico. Castro eloquently writes the defense for a guilty man who murdered his wife via song (“El Alegato”), eventually getting him acquitted but receiving none of the credit. Following the trial, she receives a mysterious phone call with an enigmatic opportunity. Having nothing to lose, Rita decides to meet the secret caller at a designated spot where she is then kidnapped and thrown into a car. It turns out that the mystery caller was infamous cartel boss “Manitas” del Monte. Manitas would like to pay Rita a life-changing amount of money for her to orchestrate the necessary steps for her to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Rita agrees.
Rita travels the world on Manitas’ dime to find a qualified surgeon. Once she does, her next task is to relocate Manitas’ wife, Jessi, (Gomez), and children to Switzerland. Rita then stages Manitas’ death and Jessi sobs as she finds out via the news. Manitas pays Rita and tells her to disappear. Manitas undergoes surgery and, now fully transitioned as she always dreamed, begins life anew as Emilia Pérez.
The Climax
Netflix
Four years later, Rita is living a successful life in London. One night, at a work dinner, she runs into Emilia, who asks her to help her bring her children back home to Mexico. Rita agrees, and Jessi reluctantly moves the children back to Mexico from Switzerland, believing Emilia to be a distant cousin of Manitas. Jessi has ulterior motives for the move, however, as her former lover, Gustavo Brun, still resides in Mexico. When Rita and Emilia run into the grieving mother of a missing child, Emilia becomes remorseful about her criminal past and becomes inspired to start a nonprofit called La Lucecita dedicated to finding and identifying the bodies of cartel victims. In one musical number (“El Mal”), Rita notesthat many of the donors to the nonprofit are, themselves, deeply corrupt.
Emilia spends time with the children and becomes emotional when her son says she smells like his Papa. One day at work, Emilia meets a woman named Epifanía (Paz). Epifanía’s former husband’s body was found by La Lucecita, for which she expresses gratitude due to his abusive nature. Emilia and Epifanía fall in love (“El Amor”). One day, Jessi tells Emilia that she intends to marry Gustavo and move in with him, taking the children with her.
Emilia snaps, saying the children belong to her. The next day, Jessi and the children are gone. Emilia, still having access to all of Jessi’s bank accounts, restricts them and has one of her henchmen physically threaten Gustavo. This causes Jessi and Gustavo to kidnap Emilia and hold her for 30 million dollars in ransom, which Rita must deliver. When Rita arrives with the money, it quickly grows violent and a shootout begins, at which point Emilia confesses her identity to Jessi.
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How Does Emilia Pérez End?
Jessi, suddenly imbued with knowledge, grows confused and regretful, but Gustavo demands that they flee in their car. They shove Emilia in the trunk. While driving, Jessi becomes more and more upset and demands that they stop the car, eventually pulling out a gun when Gustavo refuses. Gustavo and Jessi struggle over the gun, which causes Gustavo to drive off a cliff. The car explodes with Jessi, Gustavo, and Emilia inside. Rita sorrowfully goes to Emilia and Jessi’s children to let them know that they have passed, hugging them and telling them that she will now be the one to take care of them.
In the final musical number of the film, taking on a much more somber tone than any of the others, the people of Mexico and La Lucecita take to the streets, led by Epifanía. They march in a parade as they sing a eulogy to Emilia, carrying a saint-like makeshift statue. The people sing “Las Damas Que Pasan,” reverring Emilia’s bravery and love.
Good vs. Evil, Progress vs. Stagnation
Netflix
It seems that the most obvious way to read Emilia Pérez is as a morality tale. It is worth noting, firstly, that as far as identity goes, Emilia Pérez was not made by either a trans or Mexican creative team. Thus, those communities can speak most effectively about the film’s salience, accuracy, and impact. The explanation of Emilia Pérez’s ending does not serve as an endorsement of its content, but rather a reading of how its themes seem to be functioning.
At the beginning of the story, both Rita and Emilia live morally corrupt lives. Rita helps murderers and the like walk free, and Emilia is haunted by a past life of infinite crime of which we only know the surface. Over the course of the film, we see them both drastically start a new and, particularly through the vessel of La Lucecita, we see them seize the opportunity to make corrupt people suffer at last.
The only reason they are able to do so much good now is because they have information from doing so much bad in the past. They represent the future, they represent progress. Arguably, Emilia’s transition represents a larger transition for the people of Mexico toward goodness. Because she is free to be the person she has always been, she is also free to heal others instead of causing pain. Rita, now unburdened by financial and social strain, is similarly free.
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Jessi, on the other hand, serves as the foil of the story.Until the very end, she remains largely unchanged. She has always known money and comfort. Jessi has not experienced any sort of metamorphosis. In fact, if anything, she has regressed, engaging in “cartel business” in kidnapping Emilia and planning to marry the man she had previously had an affair with. Jessi and Gustavo are the kind of people that stand between Mexico and progress.
Emilia Lives On
Netflix
Emilia is a martyr. She had to die for her cause. Now, her followers march through the streets as though she is a saint. She is a classic tragic heroine. She cannot escape the heinous crimes of her past, the murder. Emilia, Jessi, and Gustavo (who is the final male villain, in what is arguably also a female empowerment story) all have to die. However, because they all perish the way that they do, Emilia gets to live on forever as a hero, and the $30 million in ransom money remains untouched and available for La Lucecita. In the final battle between good and evil, Emilia cannot live on, but her good can.
It is difficult to sort through the implications of such a story. It brings to mind the teachings of documentaries like Sam Feder’s Disclosure, which points out how often trans representation in media involves themes of deception and requires the suffering of trans characters. It is clear throughout Emilia Pérez that Emilia’s trans identity serves also as a metaphor for a larger societal transition. The ending of the film ties into this interpretation. As the film comes out on streaming and receives more mainstream attention, it will be interesting to see how discourse develops around its ending and its entire existence as an identity piece.
Stream Emilia Pérez on Netflix from November 13th.
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