Au Revoir, Shirlei

Gilberto Perin's short "Au Revoir, Shirlei" tells us about the hopes and wishes for a better future and better life conditions of people who want to move to another country. We follow Shirlei (Rebecca McDonald), a Brazilian transvestite who wants to live in Paris and thanks to a great effort from friends and her boyfriend (Angel Palomero) she gets there as we follow her journey on board of a plane. However, things aren't what appear and we get a series of flashbacks from her happy days in the company of loved ones during a throwaway party.

Artistry as its best while presenting an important and real situation faced by many people out there but the focus chosen was a more interesting one due to countless of factors such as prejudice and rejection faced by drags and trans in many places (and this was the early 1990's, even more problematic).

Perin's film does not contain dialogues for most of its time, it's all shown through careful visuals and a great use of music to show drama and humor all well combined, and with aligned with the precise performances of Rebecca, the handsome guy (Carlos Alberto de Freitas) and all the transvestite actors (Jair Rangel, Gilberto Teixeira and Everton Barreto) who play her friends.

There's humor and levity, drama and some sadness and it comes with a twist as well (very relevant at that time, maybe even today). A very commendable job, and if possible watch it along with the Making of. 8/10.