The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

1984, the Chilean desert. Twelve-year-old Lidia is growing up in a loving queer family, pushed to the margins of their town as a mysterious illness spreads through the region, already claiming the lives of several boys. Rumor has it the sickness is contracted when two men in love look into each other’s eyes. Confronted with prejudice and rising violence, Lidia sets out on a path of revenge. Winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard competition, this film blends magical realism with the western genre, offering an unpreachy story about 1980s Chile amid the AIDS crisis, and about a love powerful enough to both heal and destroy.