Rezeta
Slamdance Film Festival
Director: Fernando Frias De La Parra

Rezeta (Rezeta Veliu) is an Albanian (well, Kosovoan) model looking for more opportunities and advancements in her career in México, but, more so, adventure. Once she’s there, she befriends thasher/hesher/metalhead/punker Alex (Roger Mendoza) as a bit of guide for the city she’s in, who also helps her learn español. Rezeta—very much a free spirit—engages in a couple sexual exploits with one of her photographers (an ace in bed) and a random, “hippie” intellectual (not so much). On a getaway with a couple of her model friends, to which she also brings Alex, she drunkenly tries to kiss him, much to his surprise and subsequent abashment (read: Why would a model want me?). She pushes forth with her feelings for him despite his cerebral resistance, and the two begin an unlikely romance. As the two imbibe each other into each other’s lives, however, their separate lifestyles and personalities are pushed to their limits; Alex, an antisocial punk, faces frustration before Rezeta’s social character and tendencies, and must confront her sexualized image within her cliques. This film aptly deconstructs the stigmas and sexual allure of varying social types, underscored by the palpable class différance of México. Some of Rezeta’s subject matter comes across as banal, namely her gallivanting in her capacity and comportment as a model, but it defines her character and the tension with Alex later on in the film. It was enjoyable but not superbly memorable.