From 2008 comes this hybrid docudrama that does such a good melding fact with fiction we have no idea which is which.  Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter.

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela is the story of 2O year old Filipino Ladyboy who makes a living as a sex worker in Manilla.  Raquela has big dreams of getting out of there and finding a wealthy European husband and having a glamorous life in Paris.

Meanwhile a very sleazy porn producer in NY has set up a global Website especially for the lovers of Ladyboys (as Raquela describes them ‘chicks with dicks’).  Racquela becomes a very successful part of it and is soon answering up to 200 emails a day  from would-be ‘boyfriends’.  She actually falls for one and takes off to the Airport to meet Michael flying in from Germany to see her..  He never shows and evidently this is a regular occurance with strings of broken promises from internet ‘johns’ .

The story rambles on not making a great deal of sense, but for some odd reason it does so with a fair amount of charm that is enough to keep us fully engaged. 

Raquela accepts an offer from a Filipino Trans girl to go visit her in Iceland.   So for the next two months, she stops turning ‘tricks’ and ends up in fish processing plant!

If that is not a big enough stretch of the imagination, the movie’s Icelandic director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson then gets Racquela to Paris in the company of the constantly complaining NY owner of the Ladyboy website.  It’s not quite as she …..or we ……imagined.

The outcome of this gritty fairy tale was never going to upset Racquela’s irrepressible happiness because the journey alone to fulfill her dream is more than she ever really expected.  It is probably one the most odd films with a transgender story line, but that didnt stop it picking up a prestgious LGBTQ Teddy Award at the Berlinale.

Now streaming on Amazon Prime.