Cinema of Disobedience: Tencha Reina

70 Min. | AR | 2023

Language: OmeU | Original language: spanish

Director: Maruja Bustamante

Tencha Reina is an autobiographical account of Tencha de Sagastizabal: a psychoanalyst, an estate in Carmelo Arden Quin’s work, an actress, a shaman, and a fat woman. The film is a sensual, magical, and iridescent dreamlike portrait. A hybrid that mutates into a fable. A queer fairy tale intertwined with documentary.

Tencha lives her life like every other day. She is a woman with a son searching for his identity, a daughter who is an artist, and a husband who bakes pastry. For some time now, a question has been swirling around in her head: What is beauty? Is there beauty for her in this world? That’s why she decides to start living with a crown and also decides to crown her family, creating an intimate monarchy where the internal rules are set by those who approach her, and the world can be the most perfect place to live.
What happens when hegemony doesn’t reign on screen? What happens if the screen becomes fat? Tencha Reina canonizes other ways of seeing the world. Or at least it calls into question the supremacy of subtlety.