A FANTASTIC WOMAN – Una Mujer Fantástica
Chile, 2017
Spanish with English subtitles | 104 min
Director: Sebastián
Thursday, September 6th
8:30pm @ Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Marina and Orlando are in love and plan to spend their lives together. She works as a waitress and pursues her passion for singing by night. Her lover, twenty years her senior, has left his family for her. One night, when they return home after celebrating Orlando’s birthday together at a restaurant, he suddenly turns pale and stops responding. After rushing to the hospital, a doctor confirms his death. Events follow thick and fast: Marina finds herself facing unpleasant and invasive questioning from police, and Orlando’s family shows her nothing but anger and mistrust. On top of her loss, Marina, a trans woman, must now contend with the prejudice, hatred and disrespect she faces as she attempts to grieve. With the same pride and determination she once used to fight for her right to live as a woman, Marina now fiercely insists on her right to mourn.
“Vega’s tough, expressive, subtly anguished performance deserves so much more than political praise. It’s a multi-layered, emotionally polymorphous feat of acting, nurtured with pitch-perfect sensitivity by her director.” -Guy Lodge, Variety
First Chilean film in history to receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2018).
Marina, una joven camarera aspirante a cantante y Orlando, veinte años mayor, planean un futuro juntos. Tras una noche de fiesta, Marina lo lleva a urgencias, pero él muere al llegar al hospital. Ella debe entonces enfrentar las sospechas por su muerte. Su condición de mujer transexual supone para la policía y para la familia de Orlando una completa aberración. Prohibida asistir al funeral y expulsada de su departamento conjugal, Marina lucha contra el prejuicio y por el derecho de llorar. Pero ella ya tiene los recursos para convertirse en lo que es: una mujer fuerte, determinada… fantástica.
Sebastián Lelio, born in Mendoza, Argentina in 1974, he grew up in Chile where he studied film at the Escuela de Cine de Chile. His feature film debut La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family) screened at San Sebastián, Navidad was premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight in 2009, and his third film El año del Tigre (The Year of the Tiger) at Locarno in 2011. In 2012 he participated in the DAAD artist residency in Berlin. His film Gloria premiered in the Berlinale Competition in 2013 and its lead Paulina García won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
Sebastián’s Filmography: La Sagrada Familia (2006), Navidad (2009), El año del Tigre (2011), Gloria (2013)
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