Director and co-writer Sebastian Lelio reached out to Daniela Vega to be a research consultant about being transgender in the Chilean community for his latest film, “A Fantastic Woman”. As he prepared to tell his story on screen, Lelio realized that Vega should be cast as his lead in Marina Vidal, which ended up making all the difference in the impact of his film.
The story of a transgender woman suddenly losing the love of her life and what she must go through when everything comes into question during the days following and dealing with her own grief process, her, this is nothing short of powerful. Even though there are moments where the story gets a little lost in side journeys that do not really add anything to the film itself, its message is clear through it’s emotion and strong storytelling.
Since this is a foreign language film coupled with its subject matter, I am not going to say how/ where you should go see it. However, “A Fantastic Woman” is one of those movies that will make you think and it will stay with you.