This stirring feature portrait of lucha libre star Cassandro el Exotico in his waning years in the ring is less a swan song than a meteor shower rendered in Technicolor.

Famed as much for his flamboyant drag and sky-high pompadour as for his show-stopping kicks and flips, Cassandro’s trailblazing ascent as one the industry’s first openly gay wrestlers has resonated internationally for a quarter of a century. Marie Losier captures the moving, at times humorous, and always colorful dualities of this legendary figure with her talent for forging intimacy with a subject while broadly celebrating his individuality.

Cassandro, a prize-winning fighter who reinvented a staunchly macho sport, exudes resilience of all kinds—from the physical power to leave his opponents KOed to an ability to revisit past trauma and cope with the scars of a body pushed to its limits. Cassandro’s story—of an underdog and a queer icon, simultaneously fragile and mighty—is ever more evocative as it unfolds on both sides of the Mexican-American border.

Losier’s signature 16mm filming melds tender encounters and larger-than-life fight scenes into a stylish whole that reflects the vivid textures and hues of a dazzling life in sport.

Description and image courtesy of Film Movement.

“The camera loves Cassandro, the title character of Marie Losier’s intimate and playful documentary portrait of the lucha libre wrestling champion, and he loves it back—not least because it lets him give voice to his real-life melodrama of struggle and success.” – The New Yorker

“A fantastical look at wrestling’s fiercest and most fabulous fighter… a phenomenal experience that succeeds in telling the story of this lucha libre legend. It’s one part celebration of a wrestling icon and one part intimate examination of the sacrifices – physical, mental, and emotional – that he endured in order to carve his place in history.” – Hollywood Life