DIVA’s top picks from the festival’s Queer Lion Award category
BY SCARLETT COUGHLAN, IMAGE BY GUERRERO FILMS
With the 81st iteration of the Venice Film Festival in full swing, the world’s oldest celebration of cinematic art has already seen some of the best studio and arthouse films to arise from 2024. Amongst them is a healthy dose of LGBTQIA movies competing for the Queer Lion Award, a prize given to the best queer films screened at the festival since 2007. While much of this year’s attention is set on Luca Guadagnino’s gay romance Queer, starring Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig, there remain numerous contenders representing queer women.
Peaches Goes Bananas
A documentary telling the story of Merrill Nisker, a trailblazing queer icon and musician known as Peaches, Peaches Goes Bananas tells the story of a revolutionary genderqueer performer. Having bought herself a synth while recovering from thyroid cancer in 2000, Nisker took a radical approach to music, making her a standout act amongst the turn-of-the-millennium background. Directed by French filmmaker Marie Losier, this portrait of Nisker’s life speaks to the two women’s friendship as much as Nisker’s sex-positive, feminist take on punk.
Alma Del Desierto (Soul Of The Desert)
From the imagination of Mónica Taboada-Tapia, Alma Del Desierto takes viewers to the arid landscapes of La Guajira, Colombia, where Georgina, an elderly trans-Wayúu woman decides to reintegrate herself into her family. Though none of her siblings speak Spanish and fall victim to the inhumane Colombian political and bureaucratic system, Georgina sets out on a solitary journey to meet her family before she runs out of time.
Billi Il Cowboy (Billi The Cowboy)
This Italian film – placed in the “Films Out Of Competition” category for the Queer Lion Award – takes place in the late 1960s in the Roman countryside, where dozens of spaghetti westerns are being filmed. Shot by Fede Gianni, the queer-tinged story follows twelve-year-old Billi, a keen horse rider, who dreams of being a cowboy. But, when a casting agent comes looking for a young stunt performer, Billi must convince her family to let her realise her dreams.
Pooja, Sir
Directed by Deepak Rauniyar, Pooja Sir is the eponymous tale of Detective Inspector Pooja, a queer woman who prefers to be called Sir than Ma’am. The action begins when Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to a Nepalese border town, where two boys have been kidnapped, leaving her partner behind to care for her elderly father. Hindered by political unrest and protests, Pooja must team up with Mamata, a local Medhesi policewoman, to solve the case. While the film tackles everyday misogyny, it equally explores the personal tribulations of queer women in a male-dominated setting.
Manji (All Mixed Up)
Another film in the “Out Of Competition” category, Manji comes to the Venice Film Festival as a remastered version of the Japanese 1964 film (despite there also being versions from 2006 and 2023). Directed by Yasuzô Masumura, the plot follows a bored married woman who falls in love with a beautiful model, Mitsuko. This strange, sexually-abundant classic follows an unsettling story, in which lesbian passion erupts into obsession, adultery, and unlawful behaviour.
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