‘The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo’ review: Un Certain Regard winner is set in 1980s Chile

Dir/scr: Diego Cespedes. Chile/France/Germany/Spain/Belgium. 2025. 110 minutes

Love is a continuing saving grace in The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo. Diego Cespedes’s placing debut function blends collectively a heady combination of melodrama, western and coming of age story to create an imaginative, indignant AIDS-era story. The Un Sure Regard Jury Prize ought to assist verify its arthouse potential amongst audiences in the hunt for the offbeat and heartfelt.

Cespedes nearly maintains management of the sprawling narrative

Cespedes received the Cinefondation First Prize at Cannes for his first quick The Summer time Of The Electrical Lion (2018). His debut function is about in a distant mining group in northern Chile in 1982. The dusty lunar landscapes, harsh blue skies and vibrant rating (full with Morricone-like whistles) all mix to counsel the setting for a spaghetti western. Eleven year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes) lives right here within the heat embrace of her various, queer household. House is a shack-cum-cantina the place the miners come at night time to take their pleasure with a group of transvestites, presided over by Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca) and together with Flamingo (Matias Catalan), a mom determine to Lidia.

A brand new plague in the neighborhood has created a local weather of concern. The wildest rumours counsel it may be transmitted by a easy look between two males who’re in love. The miners do the whole lot they will to avert their eyes because the transvestites go them by. When Lidia is bullied by a number of the native boys, Flamingo and the others reply by forcing them to look into their eyes. It’s a comical punishment but in addition a means of asserting their presence. There isn’t a irony misplaced in the best way that the response to blind prejudice is to actually open their eyes,

Flamingo and the opposite ladies see it as their job to inject some glamour into the group. Their cantina is a spot to depart your cares behind. A Miss Alaska Pageant permits the ladies to parade, dance and lip-synch to probably the most soulful of songs. Heartache and hope are fixed companions in a group the place a marriage, a dance, a hug and varied acts of friendship assist to confront prejudices, dying and the will for vengeance. 

Some discover it exhausting to tell apart between fantasy and actuality, together with the feverish miner Yovani (Pedro Munoz) who pines for misplaced love Flamingo. His actions drive Lidia to develop up quicker and discover her place in a complicated world. Her loyal pal Julio (Vicente Caballero) helps her negotiate this tumultuous time of affection and dying, loss and exile.

There are plenty of influences at play in The Mysterious Gaze. from Pedro Almodovar to telenovela and likewise Margaret Attwood’s ’The Handmaid’s Story’ as soon as the ladies are blindfolded, restricted of their actions and positioned below the management of the older miners. Further components of magic realism and fantasy could make it really feel as if there’s a little an excessive amount of occurring. Cespedes nearly maintains management of the sprawling narrative, investing it with dry humour and discovering a wistful melancholy within the moments when key characters are in a position to rely their blessings. A powerful ensemble forged contains notable work from Matias Catalan because the romantic Flamingo and Paula Dinamarca because the fierce, protecting Mama Boa. Tamara Cortes is a superb discover as Lidia, investing her with a pointy intelligence and the watchful eyes of somebody effectively conscious of the whole lot that is happening round her.

Finally, Cespedes has created a touching reflection of previous occasions however one which additionally resonates in a gift the place  prejudice and ignorance are by no means distant.