Lesbianas de Buenos Aires is not really a soccer movie. Neither is it a movie that Howard Sterns would salivate over. It is a documentary of interviews of several unrelated 30ish lesbians.
The film came up in a Netflix soccer search because one of the subjects runs a woman’s indoor league, and there are a few minutes that show her playing in a facility where small sided fields are enclosed in cages of wire fences. She is very passionate about soccer, but she is basically a recreational player.
The movie is disjointed because the subjects’ stories do not intertwine, and the film cuts back and forth between their free-form interviews. Sadly, there is no sense of Buenos Aires, as all shots are indoors or in a car, except for one interview in an empty stadium.
Lesbians in a macho country
I learned a few things from this movie. The subjects feel that Argentine men take the lesbians’ sexuality as a rejection of men, and so the men call the lesbians Tortilleras as a very derogatory term. One woman tried to explain the meaning of the word, which frankly I couldn’t understand, even after they cooked a potato tortilla as an example.
It was also curious that some of the subjects are women who seem to have chosen lesbianism based on a relationship, but they could be equally happy with the right man. I think many American gay activists would have a problem with such a Cynthia Nixon-like portrayal. Maybe this film does this because first-time director Santiago Garcia is presumably male.
Anyhow, this movie is very boring and I had to wake myself up several times to finish it.
3 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 3
Resources:
- Release Date: 2004-09-02 (Argentina)
- In Spanish with English subtitles
- Spanish title is Lesbianas de Buenos Aires
- DVD has no extras.
- IMDB
- Director: Santiago García
- I could not find a Trailer
