Queen of Lapa

Shadow Royalty

Luana Muniz was the queen of the brothels in the Lapa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Note the past-tense: a final title card informs the viewer of her passing in 2017. Further research reveals she died from pneumonia, which places her death during or directly after the shooting and editing of Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat's 2019 film. The pair had been given full access to the Muniz brothel, and the intimacy on display at once fascinates and repulses. The overprimping trans tenants recount harrowing street assaults; they wear happy faces, their goals largely hanging upon the aspiration toward American celebrity, and saving up enough cash (if it's not robbed first) to modify their bodies irreversibly.

Luana's hopes and dreams? Obscure at best. She had taken up the street life at age eleven. •

Other writing at Cinemasparagus on the films of Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat:

Dipso [2014]

Queen of Lapa [2019]

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