![‘My Tender Matador’ Is A Beautiful Film Betrayed By Its Lack Of Historical Context [Venice Review]](https://cooncel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/my-tender-matador-is-a-beautiful-film-betrayed-by-its-lack-of-historical-context-venice-review_5f52a8d3366d1.jpeg "‘My Tender Matador’ Is A Beautiful Film Betrayed By Its Lack Of Historical Context [Venice Review]")
When Pedro Lemebel’s novel “My Tender Matador” debuted in 2001, it was instantly hailed as an insightful exploration of passion amid revolution, weaving broader political observations into a trans love story. The film adaptation by director Rodrigo Sepúlveda keeps the core romance at the center of the story intact, yet it seems to have come at the expense of the novel’s broader social, political, and historical context: all of them M.I.A. in the picture. A love story unmoored from any place, time, or social roadmap, the film version exists all on its own, making for a mildly interesting romantic yarn that teases at a bigger world that should make all of this more interesting than it ultimately is.