Synopsis
Raquela is a transsexual, or lady boy, from the Philippines, who dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City for a fairy tale life in Paris. In order to make her dreams come true, she turns from prostitution toward the more lucrative business of Internet porn. Her success as a porn star brings new friends, including Valerie, a lady boy in Iceland, and Michael, the owner of the website Raquela works for. Valerie helps Raquela get as far as Iceland. From there, Michael offers her a rendezvous in Paris. Will Paris be everything she dreamed of? And will Michael turn out to be her Prince Charming?
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Recommendations
- 75
The A.V. Club
Queen Raquela's plotty elements don't always work: The acting in the story-driving scenes sometimes comes off as amateurish, and the circumstances that send Rios halfway around the world seem contrived. But de Fleur gets an astonishingly good performance from Stefan C. Schaefer. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The great strength of the film is that it is difficult to know where cinema verite leaves off and fiction begins. - 70
Variety
Likeable if rambling first feature by Icelandic helmer Olaf de Fleur Johannesson ("Africa United") evinces the helmer's background in documaking, and reps a kind of quasi-doc itself with real-life trannies riffing on their own personas. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Their film is a rarity in that Rios emerges as a vibrant, reflective woman, an individual who refuses to be defined by her transsexuality. - 63
TV Guide Magazine
Rios is the glue that holds Johannesson's neither-fish-nor-fowl film together. - 50
Village Voice
Mildly engrossing, building to a final-act clash between First and Third worlds that is riveting and highly uncomfortable to watch. - 40
The New York Times
It's like being trapped in a roomful of teenage girls for 80 minutes.