Rita Mora Castro is a hard-working attorney getting slightly frustrated with the fact that her clients tend to be drug lords, murderers and wealthy abusers. One night, Rita is kidnapped and whisked off to meet cartel boss Manitas, who has an odd request for her. This powerful drug lord, who’s already been taking hormone treatments for two years, wants to have gender confirmation surgery. Rita is left with no choice but to accept his offer. With her life turning into a psychedelic roller coaster ride, Rita could quickly find herself on the wrong side of the law.
"My intention was about the transition identity, which was the chapter in the novel that gave me the idea for this film. I wanted the film to be set in Mexico, which I believe is a bit of a schizophrenic country, and these two elements, somehow the transition of Manitas Del Monte was Emilia Pérez, the change of gender was to be matched, in my opinion, with a change in the genre. Because I wanted it to be a soap opera and a musical comedy, a narcos film, something where you could not really grasp a label, something that was still very fluid. A drama that kept on changing and not being labeled." (Jacques Audiard)