The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo
Diego Céspedes has created a haunting, but poignant, film in his feature directing debut. It looks at several lives off the grid of society, how they intersect, and how life in this environment impacts a young girl. We start by seeing her get harassed by boys in a pond, and it ends with her at a crossroads from the only life she has ever known. It’s thoughtful and empathetic and beautiful.
Lidia (Tamara Cortes) lives with Flamenco (Matías Catalán) and a number of other drag queens in a desert mining town in Chile in 1982. She is bullied at a pond by young boys who have learned their disdain from the miners of the town. For her, Flamenco and the other drag queens- called transvestites, to use the terminology of the time- are her family. But, the men of the town- though enjoying the show they put on- have disdain towards them, especially when one of their own becomes ill with “the plague” after spending time with Flamenco. It’s not long afterwards that Flamenco is dead, and the man is isolated in his home. In the middle of this all is Lidia, who is trying to uncover the truth of what happened.
If you saw the year in which it takes place, and saw “the plague,” and your first thought was AIDS, that’s basically what we’re looking at. But the film not using the word is not unexpected because chances are, the people in this town do not know the term. All they know is that the plague means death. This is a film where men see Flamenco and the other drag queens in Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca)’s home as entertainment, and objects of lust and desire, but that desire also frightens them. When Yovani (Pedro Muñoz) comes to Flamenco’s show brandishing a gun, he’s already visibly ill, and wants her to “take it out of him.” The responsibility is on the woman. When Flamenco is found dead, it sets the rest of the film in motion, and it is Lidia’s film. Everyone basically knows who killed Flamenco; the mystery is separating fact from fiction in terms of why they’re dead. Did he lose himself in her gaze, or was it something more natural?
Céspedes has Lidia at the center of the story, but we learn about the community in general, especially when it comes to Mama Boa’s “family.” The connection between them all is palpable, and one of the most joyous moments of the film is late in the film, when Boa marries an older man in the town. One that accepts her, and loves her, and wants what’s best for her. There’s a delicate nature to the emotions in this film that is wonderful, and an intimacy that is befitting its filmmaking. Céspedes has good ideas here, and I was taken in by them.
