Latigresa

Young hard-luck Spanish Harlem resident Patricia Martinez (Perla Faith) has trouble with a group of lesbian swimmers, a drunken father who smacks her around and begs drinking money from her, and an old boss with a bad heart. To make matters worse, Patricia gets raped and her father is killed in a feeble attempt to stop his daughter's attacker. While she is recovering, the only friend Patricia has left in the world, her boss Mr. Goldberg, dies. But every dark cloud has a silver lining as our heroine soon discovers -- Mr. Goldberg has left her half a million dollars. Now rich, Patricia wastes no time in buying a new wardrobe, bleaching her hair blonde, and opening up a strip club where she is the main attraction. She also enlists the help of a cop, a mafioso, and a drag queen to help her track down the rapist/father killer, who Patricia is only able to identify by his muscular build and a large scar on his back. The group scours the streets of New York, perusing bodybuilding gyms for back-scarred men who are then forced at gunpoint to let Patricia feel their scars. And when she's not feeling at scars, Ms. Martinez (who is sometimes also inexplicably called Angela) is either scowling or freaking out screaming at folks or herself in the mirror. Tigresa is an interesting blend of sleaze, melodrama, ineptitude and experimental film.