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Amos Lassen wrote on 02/04/2010:

“The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela”

Dreams of Escape

Amos Lassen

One of the most amazing documentary films I have ever seen comes to us from both the Philippines and Iceland. It is the story of Raquela, a Filipino(a) transsexual and her dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City so that she can live her life in peace in Paris. Referred to as a “ladyboy”, Raquela stops working as a prostitute and begins to work in the internet porn industry. As her star as a porn actress rises, she makes new friends, one of whom is an Icelandic “ladyboy”, Valerie and a guy named Michael who owns the website she works for. Valerie helps Raquela get to Iceland and Michael then offers her Paris.
This is not a movie about sex-change operations or identity crises. Instead it is a sensitive look at a transsexual who dared to follow her dreams. It is the story of a human being playing a part in the big drama of life. Raquela acts out her part as she lives---with its flamboyancy and ugliness and inhumanity but above all with brutal honesty. She is a man who became a woman and she is sexy and pretty, funny and entertaining. Her existence is objectified in her early years by her pimp and her protector and he turned her into a product to be consumed in a perverse way. But Raquela is a person with a story to tell and her director Olaf de Fleur allows her to tell it. One thing that the film shows is that being a “ladyboy” is a role that can be acted or rejected as need be. To the director, Raquela was chasing an impossible dream and he explains that biologically Raquela is a man and she is looking for a heterosexual man to marry.
In reality, Raquela was not a prostitute but this was changed to make the movie a bit more interesting. What stayed the same is the fact that Raquela had dreams and these are shown in the film.
I understand that the film uses real life scenarios and some are very emotional and the HIV test is a powerful moment in the film, especially because Raquela often participated in non-safe sex activities. Olaf de Fleur is to be commended for his documentary which really takes the viewer into the life of a trans person. It is not always easy to watch but it is both riveting and fascinating.