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SXSW 2021

Review: Luchadoras

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- If you fight, you will get beaten in Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim’s powerful documentary – but you can also be declared a winner

Review: Luchadoras

“What can I tell you about Ciudad Juárez?” goes the question in the German documentary Luchadoras [+see also:
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by Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim, world-premiering at SXSW, and the initial reaction is obvious: nothing. Please, nothing at all. Not about the place infamous for its violence and femicides, for its mass graves and women disappearing every single day, plastered with “Have you seen her?” and “Missing. Help” posters like it's that city's wallpaper. But nobody listens, and sure enough, soon comes along another horrific account, another story about a victim who barely survived her ordeal yet still felt too ashamed to tell her family about it. “Welcome.”

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But it would be unfair to treat Luchadoras, a very likeable, touching film, like yet another account of these horrors, horrors that years ago even inspired a J Lo-starrer. Everyone shown here knows the reality only too well, that's clear, and when a journalist reports on a woman beaten to death by her partner, nobody bats an eyelid. And why would they? They have experienced violence at first hand, beatings and murders happening every other minute on a street that was calm just a few moments ago. Really, all that's left to do is to wonder out loud where these white sheets come from, the ones you cover the victims with. If you brought them from home, they would surely be covered with some floral patterns instead.

Yes, even the female wrestlers of Ciudad Juárez like flowers, it seems, but they will also beat one another with chairs if needed, or grab those long locks the first chance they get. Some are born into the job, trained by their fathers, while others grow into it, maybe just tired of feeling so helpless. Their names are cute: Baby Star, Lady Candy, Mini Sirenita. Their stories less so, full of struggles and personal disappointments, of jealous men or fathers who kidnap their children and take them across the border.

At least the directors treat them with kindness, showing vulnerability as often as strength. One is ashamed of people seeing her face, so the shiny mask stays on, always – in the uncomfortable-to-watch fight with male opponents, that's what they go after right away. There are dreams of stardom, or at least a chance to leave behind that dreary factory job that sees you come home every night petrified. But they all seem to be most afraid of “disappearing from life” as, well, what can I tell you about Ciudad Juárez? They take you and nobody notices, and the only solution offered involves a curfew for women only.

Calvo and Jasim also stay by their side out of the ring, but the show itself sure is interesting – with other women gathering to cheer them on, clearly enjoying a different narrative from the one they know from the news. But the directors also show a bigger community that's forming, of women in general, willing to pay the price for their public protests against the violence and the crimes that go mostly unpunished. To be a fighter, a luchadora, sometimes you have to do a facebuster, and sometimes you just hold up a sign in the street. These are all Mildred Hayes' girlfriends, ready to repeat her refrain of “And still no arrests? How come, Chief Willoughby?” Just like others did a few days ago in London, celebrating Sarah Everard's life yet brought together by the tragedy of death. Once again.

Luchadoras was produced by Germany’s TUMULT Film. Its world sales are handled by Rise and Shine.

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