In a dusty Chilean mining town in 1982, 11-year-old Lidia, raised by a fierce queer community, faces fear, violence, and love’s transformative power in Diego Céspedes’ poetic, absurd, and deeply human modern western.
Some looks can actually kill. At least, that’s how it is starting to feel in this dusty, remote mining town somewhere in Chile in 1982, where several men have lost their lives to a “plague” that is said to spread through sustained stares.
In this charged environment, things aren’t exactly easy for 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortés), who’s being raised by a loving queer community led by Boa (Paula Dinamarca), a strong matriarch figure, and by Flamingo (Matías Catalán), who looks after her. Lidia faces ignorance and fear from the miners and aggression from other young locals.
When the men — who can adore the women at night and loathe them by day — decide to exercise control over the bodily agency of the trans women, things come to a heated and at times absurd point from which there will be no return to normal.
For his feature debut, which won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes this year, writer-director Diego Céspedes — whose short, The Melting Creatures, played TIFF ’22 — crafts a sort of poetic, modern western with a heart so big it reaches beyond the screen. It makes the point that love takes many different forms, and it’s the only thing that can save humanity in the midst of chaos and pain.
DIANA CADAVID
Screenings
Scotiabank 3
TIFF Lightbox 3
Scotiabank 2