Luciana is an illegal immigrant to New York City. Phone calls to her family indicate that she is living in hiding due to some past transgression in her native Barcelona for which her mother assures her she's been forgiven but which Luciana does not want to return to face. Due to her undocumented status, Luciana is forced to work menial, cash-pay jobs, such as babysitting and sign waving at a fast food restaurant. Through the latter job she meets Olga, a Russian emigre who seems to live a more lavish lifestyle despite herself being undocumented. After Luciana suffers a number of personal and economic setbacks, Olga offers her an opportunity to fill in her for at her second job. Luciana agrees, although Olga does not reveal the nature of the work beyond providing Luciana an address and instructions to arrive in evening wear. Unable to afford the proper clothes, Luciana clandestinely vandalizes an outfit at a local boutique and convinces the store to sell them to her at a discount. Luciana arrives at the address Olga provided her, where she's led into a basement, provided a locked purse, and given a second address to go to late that evening. Unable to pay cab fare, Luciana tricks a driver into providing her a ride, then hides her belongings in a garbage can when the bouncer demands she only bring the locked purse inside. Olga is taken into a subterranean chamber, where she's made to stand in an unfurnished room along with several other women—including a visibly frightened Olga—all in identical evening wear and holding identical purses. When Luciana asks Olga what's happening, a remorseful Olga apologizes for luring her there and insinuates she invited her under duress. Luciana witnesses women being led into another room, with some leaving holding large stacks of money; others fail to leave after emitting frightened screams. Asking to use the bathroom, Luciana attempts to escape, but is brought back to the room with the other women. Eventually, she and Olga are brought into a chamber with a glass coffin surrounded by men and women in eveningwear. A master of ceremonies explains that the venue is an underground betting parlor where individuals wager on the outcome of extreme scenarios. Opening Olga and Luciana's purses, he removes a pair of venomous spiders, and explains that each woman will take turns lying nude in the coffin with the spider on top of them for a predetermined interval; the other woman will be tasked with making sure the spider maintains skin contact. Luciana goes first, successfully lying still and winning her round. During her round, Olga begins panicking and agitates the spider, but Luciana saves her by exploiting a loophole in the game's rules and holding the spider herself. Olga technically wins her round and both women are paid large sums of money for their success. In the aftermath of the game, the head of the organization praises Luciana for her ingenuity and offers her the opportunity to become a recruiter. Luciana takes her money and flees, collecting her belongings from the trash.
Cast
Ana Asensio as Luciana
Natasha Romanova as Olga
David Little as Doctor Horowitz
Nicholas Tucci as Niko
Larry Fessenden as Rudy
Caprice Benedetti as Vanessa
Anna Myrha as Nadia
Ami Sheth as Benedita
Miriam A. Hyman as Bikie
Sara Visser as Katarin
Natalia Zvereva as Ewa
Sorika Horng as Mai
Fenella A. Chudoba as Alina
David Serero as Dominic
Release
The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 12, 2017. On June 20, 2017, Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on November 3, 2017, by Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 44 reviews with an average rating of 7.01/10. The site's consensus reads: "Most Beautiful Island plunges audiences into a little-seen sector of society, with writer-director Ana Asensio's fearless performance leading the way". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 73 out of 100 based on 11 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".
