Transcending borders? Observing lesbian desire and intimacy in Ruth Caudeli’s Porque no (2016) and Petit Mal (2022)

This article examines the work of Spanish filmmaker Ruth Caudeli by assessing the extent to which her films made in Colombia have contributed to a transnational and feminist perspective on lesbian subjects. By focusing on the short film Porque no. (Just Because., 2016) and the feature Petit Mal (2022), we draw on the concepts of desire and intimacy through a multidisciplinary framework comprising gender perspectives, filmmaking approaches, and Latin American Studies, in order to explore a cinematic mode of representation that reclaims, records, and archives the lived experience of diverse women in the context of Latin America. Significantly, this article brings to light the ways in which Caudeli’s aesthetics exhibit attributes of the melodramatic genre and documentary modes when addressing female same-sex sexuality through cinema. In doing so, the article facilitates the reconceptualisation and critique of the representation of lesbian women through Caudeli’s work, exploring whether it disrupts the heteronormative expectations of the patriarchal societies of Latin America and how non–Latin American filmmakers such as Caudeli have chosen to tackle diversity and women on-screen.