Drew Burnett Gregory is back at Sundance bringing daily updates on the best of LGBTQ+ cinema and beyond. Follow along for more coverage or read her review of Rains Over Babel below.
Not only does Hollywood love the gender binary, they also love the binary between queer cinema that’s wholesome and queer cinema that’s edgy. The mainstream work that will fill your heart and give you hope is rarely the same as what will turn you on or have you ready to burn shit down. Thankfully, there are films made outside of the U.S. that do all of this at once. Thankfully, there are films like Rains Over Babel.
Gala del Sol’s feature debut is a reimagining of Dante’s Inferno where people — either explicitly queer or hot enough to seem queer — gather in a dive bar of purgatory to barter over their souls. The costuming and production design creates a world unto its own, a combination of sci-fi, fantasy, and hip realism.
Several characters and several stories intersect on this one day at the bar called Babel led by narrators/guardian devils El Boticario (Santiago Pineda) and Erato (Sofia Buenaventura). Timbí (Jose Mogica) and Uma (Celina Biurrun) are trying to find a missing musician to save Timbí’s dad (John Alex Castillo) from financial (and physical) ruin and to save Uma’s daughter from death. Dante (Felipe Aguilar Rodríguez), long dead, is trying to finish his last day of collecting souls for La Flaca (Saray Rebolledo). Monet (Johan Zapata), recently dead, is trying to strike a deal to return to his body. And Jacob (William Hurtado), the son of a pastor, is torn between his biological family and his new drag family. Oh and did I mention Uma has a talking lizard?
Throughout all of these tales, there are fight sequences and dance numbers and moments of delicious melodrama. This is a very sincere film about life and death and self-acceptance, but it’s also endless fun. The craft on display is intoxicating and it’s all serving a big, beating heart.
This is the kind of queer media I wish kids could watch. Of course, there’s plenty here to be enjoyed by adults, but the clear messaging wrapped in a sexy package feels so needed for young people. Sure, someone ODs and there are various forms of debauchery on display. I just don’t think life needs to be sanitized on-screen for young queer people when it’s so rarely sanitized in real life.
Because Rains Over Babel is Colombian and artful in its form and setting, I can imagine it living primarily in an arthouse market. But this is a live-action cartoon! It’s basically Nimona but with an extended sequence at a sex dungeon! I hope it finds the wide audience it deserves.
This has been a terrible week to be trans in the U.S. and I’m so grateful I could take a break and spend a couple hours in Gala del Sol’s fantastical world. It’s proof that a film doesn’t have to be palatable to provide warmth and hope. And can I remind you this film has a talking lizard??
Rains Over Babel is streaming on the Sundance online platform today and tomorrow.
