What is Emilia Pérez about?

The 2024 Spanish-language French musical crime comedy Emilia Pérez was written and directed by Jacques Audiard. It is based on Audiard's libretto for the opera of the same name, which was loosely inspired by Écoute, Boris Razon's 2018 novel. The movie debuted on May 18, 2024, at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. It was picked to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition division, where it took both the Best Actress award and the Jury Prize. Pathé released it in theaters on August 21, 2024.

Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir, Édgar Ramírez, and Zoe Saldaña are among the cast members. Clément Ducol created the film's original score, and Camille contributed the original songs. Damien Jalet signed the choreography for the movie.

To fully live as her true self, the fearsome cartel boss Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) recruits Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an underappreciated lawyer in a doomed career, to help stage her death. This musical voyage chronicles the search for personal fulfillment of four extraordinary women in Mexico.

Disclaimer: The article contains spoilers about the film.

What is Emilia Pérez about?

Emilia Pérez follows a Mexican cartel leader who hires a lawyer to assist in her disappearance so she may transform into a woman.

Rita Mora Castro, a struggling lawyer in Mexico City, is the principal defense lawyer in a murder case involving the wife of a well-known media personality. In defiance of her own moral convictions, Rita goes on to claim that the woman committed suicide.

An anonymous call with a mysterious but lucrative offer is sent to Rita after she wins the case. She consents to a meeting after considering her discontent. Her client, who turns out to be cartel boss Juan "Manitas" Del Monte, says he wants to start a new, genuine life and secretly get gender-affirming surgery.

Following consultations with physicians in Tel Aviv and Bangkok, Rita finds a surgeon who consents to carry out the treatment after learning about Manitas' early experiences with gender dysphoria. After the treatment, Rita obtains an enormous amount of money, Manitas stages a fake death and starts a new life as Emilia Pérez, and his wife, Jessi, and children are moved to Switzerland for their safety.

Rita meets Emilia in London four years later, and she wants to see her kids again. After introducing Emilia as Manitas's distant cousin who has offered to assist raise the kids, Rita takes Jessi and the kids back to Mexico City to live with her. In the end, Jessi only consents to go back to Mexico to be with Gustavo Brun, a former lover with whom she had an affair in the latter years of her marriage because she does not recognize Emilia and rejects the plan.

As Rita and Emilia settle into their new life in Mexico, Emilia is forced to consider her criminal past until they happen to run into the mother of a missing child. Later, as Emilia puts her son to sleep, the boy admits he can still smell her. Feeling guilty, Emilia uses her relationships with cartel members who are in prison to establish a nonprofit organization that locates the bodies of victims of the cartel.

Rita and Emilia work together to expand the organization and find contributors, some of whom are dishonest and dangerous. After meeting with Emilia to confirm her violent husband's death, Epifanía starts dating Emilia. In the meantime, Jessi keeps rekindling her romance with Gustavo and tells Emilia that they intend to be married and relocate the family. When Emilia starts calling the kids "mine" and acts aggressively, Jessi runs away with the kids.

Jessi and Gustavo kidnap Emilia and demand ransom from Rita after Emilia shuts off Jessi's stipend and threatens Gustavo to leave Mexico. In exchange, they receive a parcel containing several of Emilia's severed fingers. Rita tries to bargain with Gustavo when they get to the specified location, but a shooting breaks out with the security team that Rita hired to save Emilia.

By sharing personal recollections of their first encounter and wedding day, Emilia eventually lets Jessi know who she is. After loading Emilia into the trunk of Gustavo's car and driving off, a confused Jessi demands Gustavo to stop while holding him at gunpoint as she eventually realizes what happened. Gustavo, Jessi, and Emilia are killed as the vehicle veers off the road when the two fight over the gun.

Rita explains what happened to Jessi's kids, grief-stricken, and offers to be their guardian. As they march through the streets, Epifanía sings Emilia's eulogy and honors her struggle for freedom and truth.