Luchadoras

The Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez claims thousands of victims every year as drug cartels clash with government forces in the so called ‘War on Drugs”. The city is the epicentre of a wave of crimes against women in which the culprits hardly ever get caught. This inspirational film is an intimate portrait of three courageous female wrestlers (Luchadoras) from Juarez who despite being surrounded by machismo and in constant danger both, in the ring, and also in their daily life’s fight to redefine the image of what it means to be a woman in Mexico.

‘Each one of the women we portrayed [in the film] have different personalities, but they have one thing in common, which is: they have a lot of humour, they’re funny, they’re always laughing. It was so powerful to us spending time in such a difficult place like Ciudad Juárez but enjoying so much the time we had with them. It’s this philosophy in life, like “this is where we live and we’re going to make the best out of that.” Even though there were moments when we would feel afraid, horrible things happened when we were there, we always managed to be together, to be supportive to each other. They’re very strong people.’

Co-director Paola Calvo, from an interview with Screen Anarchy.