Film on Pinoy ‘queen’

Film on Pinoy ‘queen’ reigns in Berlin film fest

A FILM on a Pinoy transvestite won last February the top prize at the Berlinale’s Teddy Queer Film Awards.

“The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela,” which stars Raquela Rios of Cebu, bagged the Best Feature Film Award in the sidebar of the Berlin International Film festival.

“Queen Raquela” was cited by the jury “for its ability to address race, gender and poverty in an entertaining way, while also playing with audiences’ expectations of form.”

Filipino director Auraeus Solito won the same award in 2006 for his acclaimed “Ang Pagdadalaga ni (The Blossoming of) Maximo Oliveros.”

The prize includes a 3,000 Euro endowment to the film’s director, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson. Arlene Cuevas co-produced “Queen Raquela” which also features actors from the Philippines and Iceland, including Olivia Galudo, Brax Villa, Amor Alingasa, Raniel Dave Balasabas, Ren Christian Balasabas, Stefan C. Schaefer, Edith Galudo, Luis Labandero, Archie Modequillo, Reynaldo Palatulon and Alexis Yap.

“Queen Raquela,” which also tapped a Pinoy crew that includes Alexis, Butch Maddul, Ragnar Santos, and Beverly Tañedo, was shot in the Philippines, Thailand, Iceland, Denmark, France and the US.

Olaf wrote the plot summary in the film’s IMDB.com entry: “Raquela is a poor ladyboy prostitute who dreams of escaping to Paris, France to supposedly find her knight on Champs-Elysees, marry and have a family… But she has little chance of getting a French visa…

“When Raquela is discovered by a photographer, she gets a job working as a webcam host on a popular ladyboy website. Within six weeks, she becomes the first Filipino online porn star and earns ten times the average salary in the Philippines. Wanting to escape, she tries over the Internet to find that special guy who will take her to Paris but she is not fortunate: she is stood-up month after month at the airport.

“Things change when she meets online Valery, the only ladyboy in Iceland looking for friendship and who promises to help Raquela with her visa so she can finally go to Paris.”

source: http://blogs.inquirer.net