Academy Award-nominated Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi returns to theaters with the exclusive one-week theatrical engagement of her latest feature, A Child of My Own / Un hijo propio, opening Friday, August 7 at the Paris Theater in New York City and Monica Film Center in Los Angeles. To celebrate the release, the Paris Theater will also present the series: “A Child of My Own and Other Films by Maite Alberdi,” a special retrospective highlighting some of the acclaimed filmmaker's most celebrated works.
Alberdi's newest film follows Alejandra, a recently married woman whose struggle with infertility and the societal pressures surrounding motherhood lead her to fake a pregnancy. What begins as an elaborate deception gradually spirals into a life-altering charade, culminating in a media scandal that reverberates across the country. With her signature blend of empathy, moral complexity, and sharp social observation, Alberdi crafts another deeply human portrait that challenges audiences' assumptions.
The accompanying retrospective offers a rare opportunity to experience the remarkable breadth of Alberdi's work. The program includes The Eternal Memory / La memoria infinita, the Academy Award-nominated documentary that chronicles the enduring love between journalist Augusto Góngora and actress Paulina Urrutia as Alzheimer's disease slowly erodes his memory.
Also screening is The Mole Agent / El agente topo, Alberdi's Oscar-nominated international breakthrough, in which an elderly widower goes undercover inside a nursing home to investigate allegations of elder neglect—an ingenious premise that evolves into a moving reflection on loneliness, aging, and companionship. The series also features Her Place / El lugar de la otra, Alberdi's acclaimed fiction debut, a psychological drama following a paralegal whose fascination with a woman accused of murder gradually transforms her own life.
Over the past decade, Alberdi has established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, seamlessly navigating the space between documentary and fiction while exploring themes of identity, performance, memory, and the expectations society places on women and older adults. Her films consistently reveal extraordinary emotional depth through intimate, character-driven storytelling.
Following its New York theatrical run, A Child of My Own will make its streaming debut on Netflix on Thursday, August 13.
