Majesty

About the film

Even though Panamá is a country with no official monarchy, it is full of queens. Here, thousands of queens are crowned each year in a country where a large part of the female population dreams about being a queen, a dream to which they are inducted from childhood. Everyone wants to be a queen, from a pre-school girl or a supermarket cashier to a woman living in an home for the elderly. With her second film Majesty (Reinas, 2012) Ana Endara Mislov, portrays the queens phenomenon in her homeland from the inside. Through a playful yet critical exploration, she investigates an incredibly widespread custom, which symbolizes the festive aspect of Panamanian national spirit. An integral part of folklore which has been so far free of any judgment or criticism even if it promotes a very particular, potentially troubling idea of womanhood.