Una Mujer Fantastica aka A Fantastic Woman, written by Sebastian Lelio and Gonzalo Maza

Una Mujer Fantastica aka A Fantastic Woman, written by Sebastian Lelio and Gonzalo Maza

                This film is…Fantastic.

A Fantastic Woman deals with modern, present day issues and it exposes prejudices and backward attitudes in society.

Chile has had a recent nomination for the Oscars and the film No was another memorable work of art.

No has a political subject and it covered the elections that followed the end of the Augusto Pinochet regime.

A Fantastic Woman has also been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, where it faces tough competition.

The Square and Nelyubov are both remarkable and this viewer has not yet seen The Insult and On Body and Soul.

Marina Vega aka the memorable Daniela Vega is at the center of this drama about a transgender person.

Actually, I would not be sure what the exact description of the protagonist is, since the hero is very sensitive about her privacy.

Only we have the title and that edifies the audience- we are about to see a Fantastic Woman and her suffering.

Early on, in the first ten minutes we get to the cause of all the turmoil, because we witness the fall of Orlando.

This man is the much older lover, who has a breakdown that necessitates transportation to the hospital.

He dies and that is the starting point of accusations, an investigation, insults and attacks from the family.

Even as she mourns the death of her lover, the police arrive at the hospital and start with their questioning.

What is the name of the person? This is already awkward, for the official papers have not been changed yet.

We understand- or better said: just guess- that the hero has been through a sex change and her new identity documents are still pending.

Marina meets the brother of the deceased first, a man who is more affable, if confused by the situation.

However, the contact with the other members of the defunct’s circle are hostile to outright heinous.

The ex-wife calls to ask for the car and speaks about the apartment where Marina is lodging and which needs to be emptied.

Soon after talking to the wife, the grieving young woman has to face the departed man’s son, who is ferocious and abusive.

To top this off, the police consider the death of Orlando suspicious, given the bruises and injuries on his body.

Furthermore, the policewoman in charge with the inquiry is questioning the age difference and affair.

She wants to know if Marina received money from the departed, much older man who could be her father.

When Marina fails to appear at the station for further inquiries, she is summoned and threatened.

The options are: either submitting to a medical checkup that would establish if she was herself injured – which would probably constitute evidence that a fight had taken place- or face serious, legal consequences.

All this must be a terrible ordeal for a person who had just been through sex changing operation that certainly affects the balance, perspective of the individual, and then had to experience the collapse and death of her lover, only to be later accused, harassed and humiliated by police and family.

Marina is even denied the request to attend the final rites and say good-bye to the man she has loved.

She wants only to keep the dog that Orlando had given her and refuses the money offered as some kind of compensation.

Marina Vega is not an angel and she has a rather hard to explain encounter with a man, in a rather disconsolate annex of a night club, where the oral sex she engages in might be perceived as a release of tension, an expression of the horror she has been through, but it looked outré to this viewer.

Overall, A Fantastic Woman is…”Fantastica”