I’ve been waiting a long time for Prime Video to finally drop a trailer for Cassandro. One of the best movies to premiere at Sundance, the film by Roger Ross Williams tells the unbelievable but true story of Saúl Armendáriz, a flamboyant, gay luchador who took the world of lucha libre by storm, long before professional wrestling was ready for him.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Saúl Armendáriz, gay man from El Paso whose dreams of becoming a lucha libre superstar come true when he embraces the role of an exotic. Embracing his sexuality in a business that exemplifies manly traits and shuns the feminine, Cassandro’s popularity rose until promoters were forced to look at him differently.
I absolutely loved this movie, saying in my review “Cassandro works as both a terrific mother-son underdog story, and a powerful expression of LGBTQ confidence in a culture steeped in rigid gender roles, religious fanaticism, and hyper-masculinity.”
Bernal is joined in the cast by Roberta Colindrez, Perla De La Rosa, Joaquín Cosío, Raúl Castillo, El Hijo del Santo, and Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. Williams also co-wrote the screenplay with David Teague. Williams is best known for his Oscar-winning short Music by Prudence, and the Oscar-nominated documentary Life, Animated.
Cassandro hits Prime Video on September 22nd, preceded by a theatrical run on September 15th!
Here’s the synopsis: Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso, rises to international stardom after he creates the character ‘Cassandro,’ the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” In the process, he upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life. Based on a true story.
