\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez,\u201d the movie about a transgender Mexican cartel leader who reconciles with her past, enters the Academy Awards on Sunday with 13 nominations<\/a>, the most of any film this year. It is also the most nods ever for any non-English language film. The film has already won several accolades, including best comedy or musical at the Golden Globe Awards.<\/p>\n In Mexico, the reception has been exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n It has been widely criticized for its depiction of the country, the minimization of the cartel violence that has ravaged so many and the few Mexicans involved in its production.<\/p>\n Comments<\/a> about Spanish by its French writer-director, Jacques Audiard, which some saw as denigrating the language, and by its lead, Karla Sof\u00eda Gasc\u00f3n, about Islam and George Floyd, stoked the discontent in Mexico and made matters worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d wasn\u2019t released in Mexican theaters until Jan. 23 \u2014 five months after its debut in France and two months after its U.S. release. In Mexico, theaters showing the film have been largely empty. Some unhappy moviegoers have even demanded refunds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n An online Mexican short film parodying the French roots of \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez,\u201d on the other hand, was a hit. \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d has been the fodder of many social media memes. And it has been denounced by the families of victims of violence in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has become a real disaster,\u201d said Francisco Peredo Castro, a film expert and a history and communications professor<\/a> at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.<\/p>\n A main critique of \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d is that it trivializes Mexico\u2019s ongoing struggle with organized crime. There have been more than 460,000 homicides<\/a> since 2006, when the president then declared war on the cartels. The movie is a musical, with glitzy song-and-dance numbers, including lyrics about bodies disposed of in acid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe should keep things in perspective and say, \u2018We\u2019re not going to sing or dance about this subject,\u2019\u201d said Artemisa Belmonte, 41, who became an activist after her mother, three uncles and a cousin disappeared in 2011 in Chihuahua state, a region hit hard by the drug war. More than 100,000 people have vanished<\/a> in Mexico since 2006, according to government data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Belmonte wondered if Hollywood or the European cinema industry would dare to make musicals about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n During a news conference before the film\u2019s release in Mexico, Mr. Audiard said he apologized<\/a> if he handled a delicate subject \u201ctoo lightly.\u201d In a different interview, he said<\/a> that \u201ccinema doesn\u2019t provide answers; it only asks questions, but maybe the questions in \u2018Emilia P\u00e9rez\u2019 are incorrect.\u201d (He has also said<\/a> that he didn\u2019t study Mexico much before making the film.)<\/p>\n Netflix, which bought<\/a> the U.S. distribution rights for \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, declined to comment. It recently announced a $1 billion investment to produce series and films in Mexico over the next four years.<\/p>\n David Chelminsky, the director of Zima Entertainment, which distributed the film in Mexico, said in an interview that he had never had a film in his career generate such hatred in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cAll criticism is valid, but there was a very virulent, very aggressive criticism that didn\u2019t leave room for other opinions,\u201d he said. \u201cSo people who liked the film or who wanted to see it preferred to stay a little bit on the sidelines because there were constant attacks against anyone who came out to say, \u2018I liked it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He suggested there were tinges of xenophobia and transphobia in some critiques.<\/p>\n Not all Mexicans have condemned the movie. Guillermo del Toro, a three-time Oscar winner, said<\/a> that Mr. Audiard was \u201cone of the most amazing filmmakers alive\u201d and that his view of Mexico was \u201chypnotic and beautiful.\u201d Elisa Miller, another acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, said<\/a> it was \u201cnice\u201d to serve as an adviser on Mexican matters for Mr. Audiard.<\/p>\n After a recent showing at a Mexico City theater, Alberto Mu\u00f1oz, 37, a visual designer, said he understood the concerns about the movie but also appreciated its technical qualities. \u201cIt\u2019s an entertaining movie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Ms. Belmonte, whose relatives disappeared in Chihuahua, said that after streaming the film while in California for Christmas, she was so troubled by it that she created an online petition<\/a> in January calling for a halt on awards and its release in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cThe movie has been successful with people who have not experienced disappearances,\u201d Ms. Belmonte said. <\/p>\n While she understood Mr. Audiard\u2019s defense that the film is fiction, Ms. Belmonte was also disturbed at the way the Emilia P\u00e9rez character shifted from being a notorious cartel leader to a champion of the disappeared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Critics have also taken issue with the lack of Mexican talent in front and behind the camera. \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d was largely shot on French soundstages because, Mr. Audiard said<\/a>, he preferred the controlled environment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Adriana Paz is the only Mexican performer who plays a leading character. Mexicans felt slighted when the film\u2019s casting director said<\/a> that while crew members searched for actors in Mexico and other Latin American countries, they decided to go with the best options, even if they were not Mexican.<\/p>\n Mr. Audiard has said<\/a> that they wanted bigger-name stars in order to be able to finance the film.<\/p>\n Mexicans have also pointed to the accents of the lead actresses: Zoe Salda\u00f1a, an American of Dominican descent who has won awards for her performance and is up for an Oscar for best supporting actress; Ms. Gasc\u00f3n, who is from Spain and has lived and acted in Mexico; and Selena Gomez, an American of Mexican descent who worked to regain<\/a> her Spanish fluency for the film. (Ms. Gasc\u00f3n is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Oscar.)<\/p>\n After Eugenio Derbez, a well-known Mexican actor and filmmaker, called<\/a> Ms. Gomez\u2019s pronunciation \u201cindefensible,\u201d she apologized, saying<\/a> \u201cI did the best I could with the time I was given.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In Mexico City, some audience members laughed during a recent screening when the Ms. Salda\u00f1a and Ms. Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s characters used Mexican colloquialisms.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dialogues are completely inorganic \u2014 what the characters are saying doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said He\u0301ctor Guille\u0301n, 26, a Mexican screenwriter and producer. (Ms. Gasc\u00f3n has said she is \u201cmore Mexican than cactus.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Given the controversy<\/a> surrounding the movie, he said, \u201cin a few years this movie will be one of the biggest embarrassments of European film.\u201d<\/p>\n But Mr. Peredo Castro, the professor, questioned why the backlash against \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d was so strong, arguing that there were 120 years\u2019 worth of depictions of Mexicans in \u201cinsensitive\u201d and \u201cinsulting\u201d ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He pointed not only to \u201cgreaser\u201d films<\/a> of the early 1900s that featured Mexicans as villains, but recent music<\/a> genres, telenovelas<\/a> and shows (scripted<\/a> and reality<\/a>) that glorified narco-trafficking. And he said the bigger American and European film industries have frequently looked at Mexico through the lens of misery.<\/p>\n Mr. Peredo Castro said \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez\u201d had been released at a time of upheaval under President Trump, who has repeatedly<\/a> targeted<\/a> the United States\u2019 biggest trading partner over fentanyl and migration. The criticisms, he said, have \u201cgreatly exacerbated the sensitivity\u201d of Mexico at being the center of attention for violence, drugs and corruption.<\/p>\n In response to \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez,\u201d Camila Aurora, a Mexican trans content creator, made the short film parody, \u201cJohanne Sacreblu<\/a>.\u201d Filmed in the streets of Mexico City with Mexican performers using stilted French accents and stereotypical attire, it has gained 3.2 million views on YouTube in a month and was released in some theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez,\u201d on the other hand, has drawn tepid audience numbers. Since its debut in Mexico and through last weekend, it has made $832,000 with about 210,000 tickets sold, according to figures from the Mexican National Chamber of the Film Industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In comparison, \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World,\u201d which came out three weeks later, sold 2.9 million tickets through last weekend.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Ms. Belmonte, who created the online petition against the film, said she had no plans to watch the Oscars, even though she considers it her Super Bowl, a must-see annual event. This time, she said, \u201cI\u2019ve lost the desire.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n