“Reinas,” the latest from director Klaudia Reynicke, is a quiet but vivid tale of summer days in Lima, Peru. The script, which Reynicke co-wrote with Diego Vega, depicts a family drama against a backdrop of political chaos.
Set in 1992, just after the country’s president sent military officials to shut down Congress, heralding an era of unrest, the film focuses on a small but fractured family’s attempts to understand each other. Elena (Jimena Lindo), mother to teen Aurora (Luana Vega) and her little sister, Lucía (Abril Gjurinovic), is eager to seek greener pastures in the U.S. Her estranged husband, Carlos (Gonzalo Molina), is her last remaining obstacle. She needs his notarized signature authorizing their departure, and getting a hold of him — much less getting him to an office by a deadline — is no small task.
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We start off with Carlos, working as a cab driver, as he tells his passenger that he’s an actor. He then arrives at Aurora’s birthday party and tells his daughters, who clearly haven’t seen him in ages, that he’s been wrestling crocodiles and working as a secret agent. Message received: This guy is slippery. (As the film progresses, multiple background characters refer to Carlos as “loco.” Message double received.) Elena and the girls are leery of him, but as things warm up between Carlos and his daughters over a few last hurrahs, tension grows between mother and daughters. Eventually, Elena’s desire for freedom and Aurora’s wish to stay in Peru come to a head.
There’s plenty going on in between — Lucía’s obsession with a family ghost in their grandmother’s house, Aurora’s teen beach exploits — but these details don’t detract. “Reinas” is so appealing because it washes over you, vibrant and occasionally muddled like a mid-July day. Citizens are bound by militaristic strictures, but Aurora and Lucía must still fight over who gets to sit in front of the fan while they watch TV. Elena is one paternalistic bit of paperwork away from a better life, but she clearly feels sympathy for Carlos.
These layers of complexity make for a pleasant journey, made all the more so by lovely cinematography and production design. Diego Romero Suarez Llanos (“The Other Side”) shoots in soft light, complementing the women’s subdued performances and the delicate textures of the upper-class home where much of the movie takes place. Color grading by Yves Roy Vallaster (“Until Branches Bend”) evokes the heat and softness of summertime to a tee.
Despite the frenetic time in which it’s set, “Reinas” speaks in whispers rather than shouts. It’s meandering, and Carlos overstays his welcome a bit, but it’s no shock that this movie is moving on from a Sundance debut to a stint in Berlin. This is solid, human cinema: a series of glimpses into a life and time that many viewers otherwise would have never known. [B]
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