Emilia Pérez

Set in Mexico City, Emilia Pérez centers on Rita Moro Castro (Zoe Saldaña), a brilliant but undervalued defense lawyer trapped in a corrupt legal firm that repeatedly keeps violent criminals out of prison. Rita’s life changes abruptly when she is secretly contacted by Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), the terrifying head of a feared drug cartel. Instead of asking for legal defense, Manitas offers Rita a fortune to organize a complete, covert disappearance so that Manitas can undergo gender-affirming surgery and live authentically as a woman named Emilia Pérez.

Rita arranges the complex medical journey and fakes Manitas' death, sending Manitas’ unsuspecting wife, Jessi (Selena Gomez), and their young children to live in Switzerland. Emilia undergoes her physical transformation abroad and begins her new life. However, years later, Emilia re-establishes contact with Rita in London and concocts a plan to bring her family back to Mexico City, hosting them in her mansion under the guise of being their long-lost aunt.

Once back in Mexico, Emilia seeks to atone for her past life of violence by establishing a non-profit foundation, La Lucecita, dedicated to locating and exhuming the mass graves of victims of cartel violence. What unfolds is a genre-blending, operatic story of identity, guilt, and family, as Emilia strives to construct a peaceful future while her past instincts and secret identity threaten to tear everything apart.

Director Jacques Audiard explores the tension between radical personal rebirth and moral accountability. The film asks whether changing one's body and identity can truly erase past sins or alter a person's core nature. While Emilia’s gender transition is genuine and liberating, her lingering desire for authoritarian control over her family reveals that external and personal transformation does not automatically erase ingrained habits of power and violence. Ultimately, the movie presents a tragic critique of redemption: good deeds cannot completely wash away bloodstains when one continues to exercise control over others through deceptive means.

The film can be interpreted through three main lenses:

Emilia Pérez made a significant mark on the international awards circuit, winning 2 Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña and Best Original Song for "El Mal") out of 13 nominations, along with 4 Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Foreign Language Film.

However, the film sparked notable criticism in Mexico. Critics and local audiences pointed out a Eurocentric perspective, artificial studio depictions of Mexico, non-native Spanish accents, and perceived insensitivity toward the real tragedy of over 100,000 missing persons (desaparecidos). Public reaction was further complicated by controversial remarks from director Jacques Audiard describing Spanish as a "language of poor people and migrants," for which he later expressed regret.

Audience reception was highly polarizing. Praised aspects included daring genre experimentation (combining musicals with narco-thrillers), standout performances by Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón, kinetic choreography by Damien Jalet, and memorable songs like "El Mal".

On the other hand, main points of criticism centered on tonal dissonance between serious themes (cartel violence, missing people) and lighter musical set-pieces, awkward Spanish phrasing translated from French/English, and Selena Gomez’s non-native accent. Overall, international critics praised its artistic risk-taking, while others criticized its cultural and linguistic handling.