When Chueca dies
“When Chueca dies” a film by Ramon Gieling
Logline
In Madrid’s Chueca, lives intertwine to reveal a vivid story of diversity, human contradictions, and the fight against intolerance.
Synopsis When Chueca Dies
Chueca is the internationally known neighborhood in the center of Madrid that has
been an oasis of freedom for the LGBT community since the 1990s.
But for a few years now, due to the changing political climate of hate speech by
politicians, the neighborhood has been under a magnifying glass by opponents.
The film portrays an illustrious group of people from the neighborhood, from
trans people to drag queens, from young, wed lesbians to refugees.
At its center is Radio Chueca Libertaria’s radio broadcast from the legendary
Berkana Bookstore, about the downfall of the neighborhood and the faltering state
of the LGBT movement worldwide. In series of scenes, all the characters regularly
step out of their own lives into the roles of their opponents and enemies.
A politician proclaims a new, peaceful world order without heterosexuals.
Link to trailer
Press Quotes – When Chueca Dies
Volkskrant: “The accumulation of the real and the staged makes When Chueca Dies truly original. A cinematic and musical treatise on the ever-threatened refuge of ‘the other’.”
Parool: “With When Chueca Dies, Ramón Gieling creates a vivid and multifaceted portrait of the Madrid neighborhood Chueca, a safe haven for the queer community that is increasingly under attack.”
Filmkrant: “A passionate monument to a threatened culture.”
Docupdate: “With such surreal scenes, combined with intimate bedroom moments and gripping testimonies from Madrid queers, Gieling stands on the shoulders of Spanish heroes like filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and writer García Lorca, emphasizing the importance of a vital, inclusive, and safe LGBTQIA+ community. Because When Chueca Dies…
Cinemagazine: “When Chueca Dies is informative, tender, shocking, and brimming with energy. It’s a film that effortlessly shifts between intimacy, history, and imagination. It’s exactly these leaps — and the urgency with which they are made — that give the film its strength and distinctiveness.”
8weekly.nl: “The film — which, if possible, deserves six stars — is a combination of different genres (documentary, narrative) artfully woven together. The screenplay is by Ramón Gieling and Gustaaf Peek. The music by REINDIER deserves special attention. A recurring element is the guiding figures from the organ chorale Erbarm’ dich mein, o Herre Gott BWV 721 by Johann Sebastian Bach. What happens to this at the end is deeply moving. That alone is reason enough to see this film.”
