Traveling us back in time to The Great Depression, Miu Miu presents their twenty-first commissioned film in their evocative Womens Tales series titled Shangri-La. Directed by Fillipino director, writer, producer and actress Isabel Sandoval, the film tells the tale of two lovers torment in their plight for connection at a time of forbidden interracial love.
Set in California during the administration of anti-miscegenation laws that banned interracial marriage and intimate interracial relationships, director Isabel Sandoval turns the gaze capturing a portrait of forbidden desire, lust and the yearning of the human heart. Taking place in a confession box with softly spoken word and snapshot memories of sensual love, the leading role, a second generation Filipino farmhand, is played by the director herself alongside co-star, her forbidden American lover, played by actor and director Matthew Fifer.
Having been the first trans woman director of colour to ever be screened at the infamous Venice International Film Festival back in 2019, Isabel Sandoval's work persists in offering important pieces of dialogue in fashion, art and cinema. Indisputably offering a voice to the marginalised, the film explores and investigates isolation, loneliness, segregation, race, gender and sexuality. Lending the film from the lens of a trans woman and an immigrant, Shangri-La offers an emotionally moving piece playing on constructs of time and consciousness and begging us to experience love in a battlefield.
Filmed in California the film reverently captures every sparkle and dime of Miu Miu's latest collection.
“I regard costumes as an expression of the lead character’s potential as a woman,” Isabel explains, “where she envisions herself as a warrior, princess or goddess.”
In the cloak of Miu Miu, the protagonist travels to take on different facets of the emancipated woman - one who is free, boundary-less and powerful, providing an optimistic hope for the future, one that is free from prejudice and liberated from all of inequality.
Shangri-La is now available on Miu Miu and Miu Miu social channels.
