MADAME SATA

Year: 2002
USA: Wellspring
UK: NFT
Cast: Lazaro Ramos, Marcelia Cartaxo, Flavio Bauraqui, Felipe Marques, Emiliano Queiroz, Renata Sorrah, Giovana Barbosa, Ricardo Blat, Guilherme Piva, Marcelo Valle, Floriano Peixoto, Gero Camilo, Glaucio Gomes, OrA Figueiredo, Sacha Amback, George Bezerra, Marcos Roberto Correia, Eduardo Coutinho, Anderson LugAo, Mauro Marques, Edson Menezes, Lincoln Oliveira, Lux Ubiratan Rodrigues, Luis Ronaldo, Suzana Sanchez, Karine Teles, Valente
Director: Karim Ainouz
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese (English subtitles)
USA & UK: 105 mins
USA Release Date: 9 July 2003 (Limited Release -New York)
UK Release Date: 5 September 2003 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

JoAo Francisco dos Santos (Lazaro Ramos) was a transvestite, a cook, a nanny, a con-artist, a kickboxer and the adoptive father to the kids of various low-life friends in the slums of 30s Rio de Janeiro; he also found success as cabaret drag queen Madame SatA. JoAo/SatA was a criminal who spent a large part of his life in prison, but writer/director Aïnouz flashes back from this very colourful character's incarceration for murder to focus on his faltering rise to some kind of stardom.

More an intimate drama than that a crime epic, it explores the underworld of gay criminality and takes the time to let explore JoAo/SatA complex character in some depth.