Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes has had quite the journey with his feature debut, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, it won the Un Certain Regard, appeared at several other festivals, and became part of the first lineup of Letterboxd’s rental service. More recently, it showed at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
The film itself leans into folklore to tell a story not just about AIDS but about community and queer resistance. Set in a mining town in 1980s Chile, young Lidia (Tamara Cortés) lives with a queer family as an unknown disease spreads. It is thought that it is transmitted between two men if they look into each other’s eyes.
It’s a novel idea that grows into a unique and ultimately hopeful story. “I remember that this idea came from reading a lot about AIDS”, explains Céspedes. “I always hear about these stories because my family had a hair salon when I was a baby, in the suburbs of Santiago, the capital [of Chile]. And they were with gay men, and all of them died of AIDS. So I was used to hear[ing] these stories through my mum… She was so scared of this mysterious disease, and I always [had] something unconscious in my mind.”
Céspedes also talks about the Cannes experience, balancing queer joy with queer oppression, and what he wants audiences to take away.
You can watch the full interview below:
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo screened at the 37th Palm Springs International Film Festival.
