Featuring fearless performances from Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and the amazing Karla Sofía Gascón, the latest from director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, TIFF ’12; The Sisters Brothers, TIFF ’18) audaciously merges pop opera, narco thriller, and gender affirmation drama.

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Special Presentations

Emilia Pérez

Jacques Audiard

Exhilarating and piercingly resonant, the latest from director Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone, TIFF ’12; The Sisters Brothers, TIFF ’18) audaciously merges pop opera, narco thriller, and gender affirmation drama. Emilia Pérez is a rollercoaster in which crime, redemption, and karma collide, featuring fearless performances from Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and the amazing Karla Sofía Gascón, an ensemble that collectively received the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Rita Moro Castro (Saldaña) is a Mexico City defense attorney whose brilliant strategies have kept many murderous but wildly affluent clients out of jail. Her reputation draws the attention of Manitas Del Monte (Gascón), a notorious kingpin, who is secretly transitioning. He hires Rita to arrange an itinerary of under-the-table procedures with the world’s best surgeons, while making a plan for the wife (Gomez) and kids he’s leaving behind. The process is a success, Manitas’ murder is staged, and Emilia Pérez is born. This new identity affords Emilia the ability to create a whole new life for herself, but the past begins to creep back, threatening to undo everything she and Rita have worked so hard to achieve.

Written by Audiard with Thomas Bidegain, Nicolas Livecchi, and Léa Mysius, with music by Camille and Clément Ducol, Emilia Pérez upends expectations with its ingenious plot twists, eye-popping spectacle, and inspired musical detours, which find the entire cast singing, rapping, and dancing as a means to express the dreams and anxieties of an entire culture struggling against corruption, fear, and harmful stereotypes.

JANE SCHOETTLE

Content advisory: violence, mature themes, coarse language

Screenings

Mon Sep 09

VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre

Premium
Tue Sep 10

TIFF Lightbox 2

P & I
Tue Sep 10

VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre

Regular
Wed Sep 11

TIFF Lightbox 2

P & I
Fri Sep 13

TIFF Lightbox 2

Regular
Fri Sep 13

TIFF Lightbox 1

Regular
Sat Sep 14

TIFF Lightbox 1

Regular
Sat Sep 14

VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre

Regular
Sun Sep 15

TIFF Lightbox 3

Regular