In the gaudy, flamboyant world of Lucha Libre, Cassandro is its most eccentric star. He is the king of the Exóticos, the gender-bending cross-dressing wrestlers who fight prejudice as much as their opponents in this macho-dominated sport. Despite his lacquered hair, his mascara and his perfectly curled eyelashes, Cassandro is a combat beast, a many-times World Champion, who pushes his body to its most extreme limits. It’s rare not to see him at the end of a fight with his face covered in blood, a dislocated elbow or a broken knee! However, after twenty-six years of spins, dives and headbutts in the ring, Cassandro’s body is in pieces and his confidence faltering, as he feels the grip of a particular traumatic past. But he just can’t stay away too long from the spotlights…

Cassandro is an odd and colourful portrait of a wild and charismatic character and a thought-out documentary which shows the adventures of a gay Mexican wrestler. The photographer Diane Arbus said: “There’s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They’ve already passed their test in life. They’re aristocrats.” Cassandro is without a doubt an Arbus aristocrat; a freak who is a “queer lucha libre fighter legend.” The documentary director, Marie Losier offers the viewer a vision to the character like the Arbus freak imaginary: full of admiration, empathy and indubitable tenderness. Cassandro the Exotic is a tribute to all these people who dare to live their own fairy tale in an extraordinary and unique way.

(Daniel Sanchez Lopez, Visioner Filmfest)