The Queen of the Night

The legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography or as director Arturo Ripstein puts it an imaginary biography Lucha Reyes was an unconventional and sexually liberated woman most famous for her cancion ranchera style singing Her story begins in 1939 where at 33 she still lived at home with her mother Dona Victora the madame of a renowned Mexico City whorehouse Lucha marries the liberal Pedro Calderon and then buys a beggars daughter She becomes the mother to this child Luzma Lucha craves lasting love like junkies crave heroin But for her loyal daughter she never finds it and in the end no one can help her