THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO (LA MISTERIOSA MIRADA DEL FLAMENCO) Discovery

Queer love — in all its capacities — shines with contradicting exuberance in Diego Céspedes’ audacious debut set at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic. With a contemporary twist melding melodrama and western in a reimagined desert town in 1980s Chile, 11-year-old Lidia is raised by pageant star Flamingo (played by a charismatic Matías Catalán) in a commune of crossdressers led by the fierce Mamá Boa (Paula Dinamarca). Routine drag festivities in the cantina are halted by the sudden reappearance of Flamingo’s past lover, a mysterious miner named Yovani, as rumors of an unknown Plague begin to seethe into acts of petty bullying and fearful superstitions. Amongst growing stigma and paradoxical affliction, history is transgressive in Céspedes’ curious, sprawling tableaus. Engaged with the same fervent gaze of New Queer Cinema and embodied by a vibrant trans and genderqueer ensemble cast, THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO — which won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival — is a spectacular discovery not to be missed. –Anna Li