Amidst the sociopolitical and economic crisis of 1990s Lima, Perú, travel agent Elena (Jimena Lindo) wants to move her daughters Lucia (Abril Gjurinovic) and Aurora (Luana Vega) to Minnesota for a safer life, but needs their absentee father “El Loco” Carlos (Gonzalo Molina) to sign their travel documents. When the charismatic Carlos (Gonzalo Molina) rolls up in his beat-up taxi car, spinning tall tales about his multi-hyphenate profession (actor, crocodile hunter, secret government agent), his daughters, who he affectionately calls his “Reinas,” barely remember him. With but a brief window before the girls are relocated, Carlos tries to make up for lost time.
Winner of the Generation Kplus Grand Prix at the Berlinale celebrating films for youth and everybody else, Reinas draws inspiration from director Klaudia Reynicke’s childhood memories of Lima. A muted colour scheme imbues the film with the nostalgic quality of a faded photograph. Through heartwarming comedic sensibilities and grounded dramatic social tensions, Reynicke and Diego Vega’s beautifully understated script weaves a poignant story of sisterhood, summer heartbreaks, and tender goodbyes.
Grand Prix: Generation Kplus, Berlin 2024
Abril Gjurinovic, Luana Vega, Gonzalo Molina, Jimena Lindo, Susi Sánchez
Peru/Switzerland/Spain
2024
In Spanish with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Britta Rindelaub, Thomas Reichlin, Daniel Vega, Diego Vega, Valérie Delpierre
Screenwriter
Klaudia Reynicke, Diego Vega
Cinematography
Diego Romero Suarez Llanos
Editor
Paulo Freddi, Francesco de Matteis
Art Director
Susana Torres
Klaudia Reynicke
Klaudia Reynicke, a Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker, grew up across Peru, Switzerland, and the USA. With a background in Fine Arts and Social Sciences, she began filmmaking at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts in 2005, later earning a filmmaking Master’s from ECAL – HEAD in Switzerland. Her debut, Il Nido (2016), competed at the Locarno Film Festival, followed by Love Me Tender (2019) which had its international Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Her upcoming film, Reinas (2024) will premiere at the Sundance 2024 in the World Cinema competition.
Filmography: Il Nido (2016); Love Me Tender (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
A Safe Distance
Following a camping trip gone awry, a woman is rescued by a free-spirited couple living off the grid. As she warms to the pair, she finds herself becoming dangerously entangled in their psychosexual affairs in Gloria Mercer’s red-hot crime drama.
First Comes Love: Nakabingwit
An engaging hybrid documentary with a rom-com aesthetic, First Comes Love: Nakabingwit follows Canadian women in the Filipino diaspora as they search for the language to discuss race, privilege, and love with their white romantic partners.
Take Me Home
Liz Sargent’s film stars her sister Anna, who plays a woman quite like her real self: thirty something, cognitively disabled, and utterly vivacious. Exploring one unique family and the hardships it faces, this is a film of deep empathy and subtle beauty.
Image: © Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi
Fireflies in the Dark
Three interwoven stories explore survival, resilience, and the human cost of civil conflict against the ethnic violence that erupted in 2023 in Manipur, Northeast India. Yogesh Lohan offers an intimate portrait of lives caught in the strife.
Dear Future Self
Prompting their students to write a letter to their future selves, two friends find themselves questioning the intertwined trajectory of their own lives. Dear Future Self is a sharply tender story about friendship, dreams, and the desire for agency.