When Karla Sofía Gascón got to the stage, she could barely catch her breath. The Spanish actress’s smoky eyes glistened as she choked back sobs to find words she never imagined she would be saying at the Cannes Film Festival. “We all have the opportunity to change for the better, to be better people,” she said in Spanish, as she called out the hatred and indignities that transgender people suffer on a daily basis.

In Emilia Pérez, a powerful cartel leader named Emilia (Karla Sofía Gascón) seeks out the services of Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an undervalued criminal defense lawyer, to help fake her own death in order to leave behind her deadly drug empire and wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) for the promise of life as her authentic self. A tale of ultimate redemption and what it means to fight for a purpose, the Spanish-language Emilia Pérez was awarded the Jury Prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The auteurs discuss Audiard’s musical crime drama starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez.
 

It’s safe to say there’s never been a film like Emilia Pérez, the musical crime drama from renegade auteur Jacques Audiard. Starring Karla Sofía Gascón in the title role, the story follows a fearsome cartel leader who hires gifted yet overlooked attorney Rita (Zoe Saldaña) to help her fake her own death so that she might begin a new life as her authentic self. To do so, she’ll need to leave behind the drug empire she operates, as well as her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and their two sons. Also starring Adriana Paz and Edgar Ramírez, the Spanish-language film is loosely based on Boris Razon’s novel Écoute and features 16 original songs from songwriting duo Clément Ducol and Camille.