Ignacio Juricic | Locas Perdidas (Lost Queens) / 2015

a slow spiral into disaster

by Douglas Messerli

 

Ignacio Juricic (screenwriter and director) Locas Perdidas (Lost Queens) / 2015 [28 minutes]

 

On May 4, 1996, Chilean police broke into a major drag bar and arrested the young boys enacting their roles as drag queens. Among those boys was Maureen Junott (Fernando Celedón) who is demanded to name names and provide his sexual partner’s addresses; he does so vaguely, to the shock of nearly all the others.

     Among the others is Rodrigo (Andrew Bargsted), whose major fear is that his mother might see the arrest of TV, and thus lose all accessibility to his own family.

     Yet his mother Carmen (Roxana Campos), a tried hospital worker, who is clearly being clocked into more hours than should be allowed, does not notice anything, nor her daughters. She mostly sleeps, Rodrigo gently awakening her as they talk about the ugly details of her job. His sisters chatter away about when each of the brother’s returns home providing the full time, from early in the morning to 10:00 the next morning by Rodrigo; but none of it seems to have much consequence, at least not immediately. But Rodrigo the good boy, explains to Carmen that “last night I was arrested.” He admits also that it may even be on TV.

      But meanwhile he is on his way to get a haircut, the haircutter Mauricio (Rodrigo Pérez), with whom he hopes to run away with to the north far from Santiago. The rest of the family prepares for a wedding celebration, while Rodrigo hardly breathes in terror of the new reports, which have captured the entire incident.

       As Mauricio attempts to calm him and put off their attempted escape, it is a slow spiral into disaster as Rodrigo slips into family gossip and disgust. One of his sisters has just spotted him kissing Mauricio, which for young curious girls is only intriguing. Yet, the youngest daughter Giselle (Maite Neira) cannot help to admit the fact to her mother, who now seems trouble.

      Rodrigo attempts to involve his elder sister in retrieving his possessions from his bedroom, which soon after Mauricio refuses to help with. He has offered a temporary escape at his place, but even the elder sister Alexandra (Macarena Lagos) comments that it is only 10 minutes away. Not a place far enough to protect her brother.

      Carmen, meanwhile dismisses Mauricio, Rodrigo intruding to admit that it is not the hairdresser’s fault, the fact of which she disregards, threatening to report him to the police. When Rodrigo argues that he is leaving with him, she insists he is going nowhere and standing in his way, locks the door, virtually imprisoning her own son withing her house.

      His mother determines that he no longer can work at “that place,” to which Alexandra proclaims given that her mother is working shifts, she cannot support the house alone. Again, Rodrigo admits that last night he was arrested and it may appear on TV. The mother only orders that they disconnect the bell.

      The two sisters, Alexandra and Giselle comfort one another, the elder suggesting that the younger uses makeup like a monkey as she reminds her of their aunt Cecilia, of whom they often made fun.

      Rodrigo appears to be sleeping with his sister in her bed, she continuing to tell him stories of their strange relatives. He snorts with laughter at the memory, but we know he is now spiritually and mentally dead, locked away in a culture which cannot bear the existence of his desires and activities.

     This painfully touching work was first short at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and became a favorite of the gay film circuit.

 

Los Angeles, September 11, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (September 2026).