Chabuca (Spanish)

Biographies are tricky, because they may work for the country where the main character is based on, but maybe not in other places. This film is the biography on the life of Peruvian actor and drag queen Ernesto Pimentel 'Chola Chabuca' and a very famous TV show host. As it happens most of the times, I had no idea who this person was. But that did not stop me from throughly enjoying this film. It is one of those well made biographies and is a story that will resonate with most folks irrespective of what you have known this personality or not. 

The film starts with Ernesto Pimentel, dressed as 'La Chola Chabuca', about to enter the air to host his first television program, and he faints. Using this scene a few times, we are then taken through the journey and rise of Ernesto. As a very young boy, Ernesto loses his mother and is raised by his grandmother. He also needs some economic stability, so he starts taking random theatre jobs here and there, but is always hard working and eager to learn everything. He also has his first few sexual encounters during this time with the same man and realizes hard way the difference between love and some older guy just using him. He continues to work and living an ok life with his work and his boyfriend Andre, whom he met at some audition. Life throws a spanner, when Andre finds out he is HIV positive in late 80s and subsequently Ernesto also tests to be positive. But thanks to his hard work, in theaters and clubs, one day he gets offered big money to Dres up as a girl and entertain audience. He becomes 'La Chola Chabuca' and we see his slow rise till a point when a TV producer offers him his own show as Chabuca. BY this time his relationship with Andre is off and on and mostly bad because Andre is using Ernesto only for his money and never works. After fainting, he tells his producers he has AIDS but they decide to keep secret and soon his show is really successful. Andre doesn't like this, specially since he finally gets snubbed for good by Ernesto. He gos to rival channel and spills secrets. Ernesto owns this completely and confesses on live TV about him having AIDS and continues to be a big advocate for it. Till date he is an extremely powerful and famous performer and thanks to his best friend producer, he is also now a producer father to his son.

This film is done extremely well. It is a montage where Ernesto's heartbreak is felt in the relationships of affection and support with his mother, his trans friends, his best friend from school, his lovers and partners and his other school friends. It also shows in a good light, all those people who recognized his talent and gave him opportunities to shine. We do see that Ernesto was a smart kid right from childhood and had a knack for acting and speaking his mind, which become his eventual true strength. But the film also uses the opportunity to reflect the discrimination against LGBT folks back in 80s and 90s in Peruvian society. The 'chabuconas' serve as inspiration in the film and provide moments of humor, but also give a passage to the reflection of a complex life. The lead actor playing the main role is extremely impressive and does an absolute fantastic job. It is really hard to include all the facets of. A man's life when it is so full of stories and adventures but the makers do their best. Even when sometimes, not all characters are even full justice and in their own way we see how many many people around Ernest supported his journey, including his lover Andre, in some way. The film tries to show us as many chapters as possible focusing on men in his life, how his career shaped up and love of his grandmother kept him going. 

A dancer and actor who went through the loss of his mother in childhood, a rape, the infection of AIDS, living in a convent to finish his studies and, later, becoming the great figure of television is not a tiny path without a doubt. This was a very well made film and I would highly recommend to watch. (7.5/10)