Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor will open the Horizontes Latinos competition at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival with the world premiere of “Limpia,” an adaptation of Alia Trabucco Zerán’s bestselling novel about the relationship between a domestic worker and the young girl in her care.
The section, long positioned as San Sebastian’s window into contemporary Latin American cinema, will feature 12 titles making their Spanish premieres. The lineup includes world premieres of “Limpia” and “Dolores” from Brazil’s Maria Clara Escobar and Marcelo Gomes, alongside selections fresh from Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Tribeca, Locarno and Toronto. Several entries reached completion through the festival’s own industry pipelines, including the Europe–Latin America Co-Production Forum, Ikusmira Berriak residencies and WIP Latam.
Horizontes Latinos will close with “La misteriosa mirada del flamenco” (“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”), the debut feature from Diego Céspedes, who won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Award this year. Céspedes’ film, which mixes western tropes with a tale of vengeance, follows a young girl confronting those who blame her family for a strange disease related to love between men.
Escobar and Gomes bring “Dolores” for its world premiere in the section. The film centers on a 66-year-old woman who decides to sell her home in order to buy a casino, and marks a return to San Sebastian for Gomes, whose work has screened across two decades, and for Escobar, who first appeared in the festival’s film schools section in 2005.
Other titles in the lineup include “Hiedra” (“The Ivy”) by Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragán, which bowed in Venice’s Orizzonti program following early development at Ikusmira Berriak; and “Olmo,” from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, which premiered in Berlin Panorama and portrays family life in the late 1970s through the eyes of a teenager. Eimbcke will also present a work in progress of his upcoming film “Moscas” as part of WIP Latam.
Argentina’s Iván Fund returns with “El mensaje” (“The Message”), winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize in Berlin and developed through both the Co-Production Forum and WIP Latam. The road movie follows a nine-year-old girl traveling with guardians who survive as pet mediums. From fellow Argentine Daniel Hendler comes “Un cabo suelto” (“A Loose End”), his third feature and winner of the WIP Latam Industry Award last year, which premiered in the Spotlight section of Venice and follows a low-ranking police officer on the run in Uruguay.
Chile’s Nayra Ilic García screens her second feature, “Cuerpo celeste,” a coming-of-age story set in the political transition of the 1990s, which was developed through the Co-Production Forum and honored in Tribeca and Guadalajara. “Hijo mayor” (“Elder Son”), the debut of Argentina’s Cecilia Kang, tells of a Korean family resettling in Buenos Aires and premiered in Locarno, where Kang won best emerging director in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section.
Lucrecia Martel appears in the section with “Nuestra tierra” (“Landmarks”), a nonfiction account of the murder of Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar in northern Argentina, which screened out of competition in Venice. Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto brings “Un poeta” (“A Poet”), winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, about a failed writer who discovers a gifted adolescent. Mexico’s Nicolás Pereda presents “Cobre” (“Copper”), which screened in Toronto after a mention in FidMarseille, centering on a man who finds a dead body on his way to work.
All 12 films will compete for the Horizontes Award, which carries a €35,000 prize shared between the producer and Spanish distributor. Debut and sophomore features, including “La misteriosa mirada del flamenco,” “Cuerpo celeste” and “Un poeta,” are also eligible for the DAMA Youth Award, voted on by a jury of 150 students.
The San Sebastian Film Festival runs Sept. 19–27.
More details on the Horizontes Latinos competition lineup below.
“Limpia”
Director: Dominga Sotomayor
Country of production: Chile
Cast: María Paz Grandjean, Rosa Puga Vittini, Ignacia Baeza Hidalgo, Benjamín Westfall, Rodrigo Palacios
Opening Film
Inspired by Alia Trabucco's bestselling novel, “Limpia” is a psychological thriller telling the story of the intense relationship between Estela, a domestic worker, and the six-year-old girl she cares for day and night. As their bond deepens, they build a secret and dependent world, which will lead them to an inevitable outcome.
“La misteriosa mirada del flamenco” (“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”)
Director: Diego Céspedes
Countries of production: Chile – France – Germany – Spain – Belgium
Cast: Tamara Cortés, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca, Claudia Cabezas, Luis Dubó
Closing Film
Ikusmira Berriak 2020
In the early 80s, in the Chilean desert, 11-year-old Lidia is raised by a queer family banished to the outskirts of an unpleasant and dusty mining town. They are accused of causing a mysterious disease that’s starting to spread, said to be passed on through a simple gaze, when one man falls for another. In this modern western, Lidia leads the quest for revenge, taking on the violence, the fear and the hatred, where the family is her only haven and love could be the real danger.
“Cobre” (“Copper”)
Director: Nicolás Pereda
Countries of production: Mexico/Canada
Cast: Lázaro Rodríguez, Rosa Estela Juárez
Coming across a body on his way to work in a remote mining town, Lázaro is regarded with suspicion by the members of his community, and even of his own family. When lung disease forces him to take time off from the mine, doubts regarding his true state of health intensify, stoking rumours about his potential involvement in the crime. Lázaro finds comfort in his aunt, only a few years older than himself and with whom he develops an increasingly more ambiguous relationship.
“Cuerpo celeste”
Director: Nayra Ilic García
Countries of production: Chile/Italy
Cast: Helen Mguralski, Daniela Ramírez, Néstor Cantillana, Mariana Loyola, Nicolás Contreras
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2021
WIP Latam 2024
Chile, summer 1990. As the dictatorship is in its final throes, fifteen-year-old Celeste is spending the holidays with her family on a beach by the Atacama Desert when an event shatters her adolescence and sends her mother into a downward spiral. Months later, drawn by the promise of a solar eclipse, Celeste returns to the spot, but nothing is the same. In a changing country, she must find her own path.
“Dolores”
Directors: Maria Clara Escobar, Marcelo Gomes
Country of production: Brazil
Cast: Carla Ribas, Naruna Costa, Ariane Aparecida, Gilda Nomacce, Zezé Motta
On the eve of her 65th birthday, Dolores has a premonition: her life is about to change. She will own a successful casino. However, her gambling addiction of the past may work against her. Deborah, her only daughter, waits for her boyfriend's release from prison to start a new life, whilst her granddaughter Duda clings to a chance of working in the United States. All three women will strive to make their dreams of a better life a reality, going for it all or nothing.
“El mensaje” (“The Message”)
Director: Iván Fund
Countries of production: Argentina/Spain/Uruguay
Cast: Mara Bestelli, Marcelo Subiotto, Anika Bootz, Betania Cappato
WIP Latam 2024
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2023
At the height of the financial crisis, a girl with the gift of being able to talk to animals and her opportunistic guardians make a living from organising pet medium sessions as they travel in a small camper van along the dusty trails of the Argentinian countryside. A supernatural business, where the transcendental means cash and opportunism brushes with the truth. Magic or scam, the service is real and innocence a treasure.
“Hiedra” (“The Ivy”)
Director: Ana Cristina Barragán
Countries of production: Ecuador/Mexico/France/Spain
Cast: Simone Bucio, Eddú Francis Llumiquinga
Ikusmira Berriak 2022
Azucena spies on a group of teenagers who live together like siblings in an orphanage. She's 30 years old but stuck in the past on account of a life-changing event. Although their social worlds keep them apart, Azucena searches for something within the group, particularly focusing on 17-year-old Julio. The encounter between these two wounded people is shaped by pain, attraction, the Oedipus complex, laughter and tenderness.
“Hijo mayor” (“Elder Son”)
Director: Cecilia Kang
Countries of production: Argentina/France
Cast: Chang Sung Kim, Sang Bin Suh, Anita B Queen
A Korean family decides to look for new opportunities and find ways of grieving for what they have lost on the way: Lila, a young Korean-Argentinean girl, navigates the contradictions of her identity and tries to find her place in the world. Meanwhile, her father Antonio arrives in Latin America 18 years earlier as a young man in search of new horizons, deciding to bet everything he has on the promise of a young immigrant's dream. A generational saga that returns to the past to reinvent today.
“Nuestra tierra” (“Landmarks”)
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Countries of production: Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Netherlands/Denmark
In 2009, a man and two accomplices try to evict members of the Indigenous community of Chuschagasta, in northern Argentina. Claiming ownership of the land and armed with guns, they kill the community's leader, Javier Chocobar. The murder is caught on video. It takes nine years of protests before court proceedings are finally opened in 2018. During all this time, the killers remain free.
“Olmo”
Director: Fernando Eimbcke
Countries of production: USA/Mexico
Cast: Aivan Uttapa, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Andrea Suárez Paz, Diego Olmedo, Rosa Armendariz, Melanie Frometa
1979, New Mexico, USA. Olmo is stuck. Today is his turn to take care of his sick father even though he is only 14 years old and would much rather be hanging out with his best friend, Miguel. But when he gets invited to a party by his beautiful neighbour, Nina, he will do whatever he can to get out of his duties, embarking on a journey of mischief and chaos. As the night unfolds, he may come to love the very place he's spent so long trying to escape: his home.
“Un cabo suelto” (“A Loose End”)
Director: Daniel Hendler
Countries of production: Uruguay/Argentina/Spain
Cast: Sergio Prina, Pilar Gamboa, Alberto Wolf
WIP Latam 2024
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2023
Santiago, an Argentinian police constable, crosses the border into Uruguay on the run from the other police officers on his trail. Putting his uniform to good use, he inspects regional food stalls, testing dairy products and cold cuts to survive, while trying to go unnoticed amongst the locals. With neither money nor a place to stay, but with kindness and wit, he starts to carve out a new life for himself, receiving help from the local characters who cross his path, and even meeting the person he believes could be the love of his life.
“Un poeta” (“A Poet”)
Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Country(ies) of production: Colombia/Germany/Sweden
Cast: Ubeimar Ríos, Rebeca Andrade, Guillermo Cardona, Allison Correa, Margarita Soto, Humberto Restrepo
Óscar Restrepo, the poet of the title, has been incapable of measuring up to his promising first steps in literature, and gets by as he can while caring for his mother. Óscar finds a kindred spirit in his student Yurlady, a young woman whom he sees as a diamond in the rough of poetry.
