Berlinale 2024: Reas (Forum) | Review
A re-enactment of life inside a Buenos Aires prison featuring women and trans ex-convicts shines in Reas, the latest work from Argentinian director Lola Arias, following her 2018 Forum entry Theatre of War.
Argentine filmmaker Lola Arias returns to the Berlinale Forum after her 2018 entry Theater of War, in which six veterans from the Malvinas/Falklands War, thirty-five years after the conflict, came together to make a film. They spent months discussing their traumatic situations and war memories, then rehearsing their re-enactment. In her second feature, she follows the same concept as her previous work: re-enacting personal experiences.
Yoseli, a 26-year-old, dreamed of becoming a millionaire and traveling the world. As she sings, “Paris or New York, Barcelona or Milan. I don’t know what they’re like. All those cities. I want to reach the other side of the sea, sail away in luxury…”, she even has the Eiffel Tower tattooed on her back, hoping one day to reach the French capital. However, the poor girl was nabbed at the airport for drug trafficking (like most peddlers, she says “that’s not mine, I borrowed the suitcase”) and sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison. She passes the security check with stoical calm and later meets Nacho, a trans man who was arrested for swindling and started a rock band in Jail; Estefi, the one who sings; “auntie” Noe, a transwoman, the keyboardist; Paulita, the bassist, and other convicts, who had one rule “we help each other and that’s why you must become part of the we”. Yoseli is sworn into a diverse group of cis and trans women, living her life in prison with happiness as she dances and sings along with her cellmates.
It is clear that with Reas, Lola Arias wants us to experience the other side of a place that we’ve imagined all this time as a demeaning and dehumanizing experience. By turning the documentary into a witty musical format, it beautifully transforms emotional conflict into a space where no one will judge and everyone can have fun with it; even the wardens will be joining them as they celebrate their fantasy through music. Arias allows her subjects to be sexy, hilarious, and lovable as much as possible. These amazing non-professional actors bring unexpected tremendous energy as they vogue, sing, and dance along to their dazzling musical numbers. The songs imply their past in prison expressed along with their dreams for the future, while also not forgetting to make us laugh at every step. It is too early to say this, but Reas will end up among my top films of the year. It is funny, inventive, unforgettable, and too short in length that I don’t want the music to end.
Reas is produced by Gema Juarez Allen and Clarisa Oliveri for Gema Films (Argentina), Ingmar Trost for Sutor Kolonko (Germany), and Vadim Jendreyko for Mira Film Basel (Switzerland). The Paris-based company Luxbox Films is handling international sales.
