Directed by Isabel Sandoval
Donna, a transgender sex worker in Manila, moves back to her small hometown in search of a new life. Once there, she reunites with her child, who knows her as his aunt, and becomes caught up in the intrigues surrounding a critical local election, working to unseat the corrupt mayor.
세노리타
Canada Vancouver International Film Festival 
Switzerland Locarno Film Festival 
Philippines Cinemanila International Film Festival 
Sweden Göteborg International Film Festival 
Denmark Canada Denmark Philippines Sweden Switzerland 
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I can't fathom the full context this film was made in, but some facts influence the viewing profoundly: this is a debut feature film made by a trans woman who had not yet fully engaged her gender or transition. The political thriller that lies on the surface of this film carries enough emotional weight to make this film compelling without this context, but watching a trans woman lay a facet of the exploration of her own gender out in such a public manner comes with a mixture of sympathies, assumptions, and reactions on my part that overshadow the intended narrative. This is based on what is reported in a few places online, so I have to work with some assumptions…
covered in shades of Fassbinder. this movie is such a stunning and passionate portrayal of a trans woman’s life. as a former sex worker this movie of course rang a lot of bells for me and hit a lot of marks in what i personally am wanting in a movie portraying our lives. but what makes it stands out is setting it in front of the backdrop of a local election. and showing the audience a woman trapped by her circumstances, trapped by capitalism, trapped by cisnormativity. doing what shes does for survival first and foremost. it strikes a deep cord inside i wasnt expecting it to hit. the shame, the double lives, the protection of innocence.
Sandoval is a marvel in the modern day, layering her own humanity and love into her narratives. i cannot wait to explore her other features.
“i am nobody to you, therefore i can be anybody. got it?”
a former sex worker moves out of the city in order to protect her foster son from imminent danger… though, that doesn’t mean she is immune to such threats and peril. Isabel Sandoval marks her debut feature (which she also produced and starred as Donna) with Señorita, a bold narrative about being in the trenches of a sociopolitical battle, whilst using her position, i.e. her power to take down the opposing player the only way she knows.
Donna bravely puts herself at risk, is seen constantly afraid that her actions will implicate her, whilst also maintaining her resilience and dignity — this was Sandoval’s take on the femme…
relaxed hangout hitchcock vibe that takes the time to show that queer life isn't constantly dominated by individuated pain and suffering -- how sandoval depicts her character's trans identity is through her ability to navigate various social spaces, whether they are religious, linguistic, political or sexual. she can exist within these interior worlds, she can easily alternate between filipino and english terminology, but this restless feeling of transience and friction matches the film's scrubby digital cinematography and highly selective use of sound, which drops out certain noises depending on donna's subjective experience -- sandoval's world can't seem to occupy a state of balance for long, it teeters on the razor edge of genre while remaining too authentic to sublimate itself…
A truly gripping debut from Isabel Sandoval - though that'd only be putting her efforts both on screen and behind the camera very lightly. It's impressive enough just how much is established in Señorita from the backgrounds and how they affect the people living within them. It's clear enough that she's taken an influence from Alan J. Pakula's Klute here, because the film builds itself up much like a gripping neo-noir from the same era had done so; if anything that alone would be more than enough to sell any viewer in on her being one among the most promising of upcoming filmmakers from then.
I'm eagerly awaiting what's next in store for Sandoval; truly one of our most exciting voices in film today that I can think of.
Oh? My? God? How does Isabel Sandoval never miss
1st Isabel Sandoval
Had the rare privilege of seeing this in the UK at its premiere with the director in conversation. Sandoval was very modest about what she saw as the technical failings of this, her first feature. Certainly, there are some wonky pieces of sound editing, the quality of the camera isn’t the best and the title card does seem to look like it was made in PowerPoint. Yet the assured quality of Sandoval’s direction is apparent from moment one, with a number of beautifully framed shots that demonstrate her keen eye for images and the power of a sensual cinema. Its depiction of both queer sexuality in the Philippines and the stark reality of political corruption is direct…
Inasmuch as Señorita is a political thriller, it is also a parable of transfemininity, agency, and sexual naivety. The narrative acts as a sort of backbone that links the film’s disparate elements together. Donna’s double life and her interpersonal relationships are the primary focus, and they are colored chiefly by her status as a trans woman. She tries desperately to maintain Tomas’s innocence, leading him to believe she takes up beauty pageants on trips to the city instead of telling him the truth of her being a sex worker. Her political and moral duplicity, and her struggles with them, seem to me to mirror an internal struggle of identity within Sandoval— A push-pull relationship between truth and illusion that calls into question which is which.
In the end, Donna’s truth is forcefully brought out— and she just has to accept it. Live with it.
Lingua Franca is high on my priority watchlist right now but I saw that two other Isabel Sandoval flicks are expiring on the Criterion Channel this month. I figured it would probably be hard to find those two movies once they leave streaming so I wanted to watch this and her other film before checking out Lingua Franca.
I actually follow Sandoval on Twitter and she looooooves Wong Kar-wai. This became pretty unsurprising as the score during certain scenes sounded a lot like In the Mood for Love's Yumeji's Theme. This is an eye-opening and raw look at sex work and the life of a trans woman. I love the authenticity of this, and while I wasn't consistently hooked, there…
cathartic watching experience. trans political double agent femme fatale is just an unbelievably brain genius way to cast oneself. isabel sandoval is arguably the only actor who has ever lived
😩😩😩 My last review (for As Tears Go By), I accidentally deleted myself in a moment of thoughtlessness, and now three paragraphs deep into this one my Letterboxd app just decided to crash. Next review will not be typed on my phone lol
To lazily summarize my thoughts: Isabel Sandoval cool person with cool Criterion Closet video. Strong themes of identity and disconnect between one's perception of self and one's actions. Potential shown but not quite realized. Script good. Characters and themes deeply emotional. Plot engaging. Trans rights.
Took me by complete surprise, such a stunningly powerful study of both the character and her circumstances. And it is a debut?!
Isabel Sandoval's natural command of her craft never ceased to amaze me. In awe of the way she takes a neo-noir form as a foundation and shapes it into something a lot more intriguing than I had anticipated. Personal-as-political identity addressed with utmost vision and emotional force.
