Thesis on a Domestication by Javier Van der Couter
The 60th annual Chicago International Film Festival begins this Wednesday, October 16, showcasing productions from Latin America, including films directed by filmmakers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.
The International Competition programs bold cinematic statements that represent the best in modern filmmaking from around the globe. This year's selection includes Transamazonia, a Brazilian co-production directed by Swedish-South African filmmaker Pia Marais, and the Brazilian film Suçuarana by Clarissa Campolina and Sérgio Borges.
Transamazonia follows Rebecca, the daughter of a missionary who, as a child, survived a plane crash deep in the Amazon jungle and was declared a 'miracle.' Now an adult, Rebecca has become a healer sustaining their mission with her fame. But when illegal loggers invade Indigenous lands, her father maneuvers them into the center of the escalating conflict.
Suçuarana follows the story of Dora, who seeks a mythical homeland through Brazil's mining region, and her journey is complicated by the road's perils until finding temporary solace in an abandoned factory worker community. The film infuses the road movie genre with ethereal magical realism, longing for a sense of belonging that is always just out of reach.
Pablo Larraín’s biopic Maria will be screened in the Special Presentations section of the festival. The final part in a trilogy of biopics about iconic women, the film stars Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas. Set during the final week of the opera singer’s life in 1977 Paris, the film explores the tension between her public image and private self.
The festival's documentary section will screen Apocalypse in the Tropics, where Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa examines Brazil’s political landscape, focusing on the evangelical movement that paved the way for Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency. Through interviews with figures like televangelist Silas Malafaia and President Lula da Silva, Costa delivers an urgent look at the fragility of democracy.
In Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias’ Pepe—presented in the Snapshots section—, the story is told from the perspective of a sentient hippo at the moment of its death. We hear the animal’s thoughts as they’re spoken aloud by a raspy narrator, as the film skips across time and continents, from Pepe’s home country of Namibia to the Rio Magdalena in Colombia, where Pepe has escaped. The film shuffles modes of storytelling and alternates between nonfiction and fantasy. In its sympathetic inquiry and aesthetic muscularity, Pepe poses provocative questions about the ever-shifting ecological stakes of life on Earth and the nature of being.
The spotlight section of the festival features award-winners and critical favorites. Among these year’s selections are La Cocina by Alonso Ruizpalacios from Mexico, I’m Still Here / Ainda Estou Aqui by Walter Salles from Brazil, and Emilia Pérez by French director Jacques Audiard.
La Cocina, the latest film by Mexican director Ruizpalacios starring Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones, is a tragic and comic tribute to the invisible people who keep our restaurants running and our stomachs full, whilst chasing a perhaps unreachable version of the American dream.
Salles’ I'm Still Here, which won Best Screenplay at the 81st Venice Film Festival, adapts Marcelo Paiva’s memoir about his father. Set in 1971, it tells the story of Rubens Paiva, a former congressman and critic of Brazil’s military dictatorship, who was taken from his home by officials and disappeared. The film remains tightly wedded to his wife Eunice’s perspective, as she searches for the truth.
Emilia Pérez, winner of the Jury Prize and Best Actress at Cannes, is a darkly funny crime drama and musical set in Mexico City. The film stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez, as a lawyer helps a feared cartel boss transition to the woman he's always dreamed of being.
The OutLook section of the festival highlights cinema that reflects the myriad perspectives and experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals. Among the films competing for the Q Hugo Award this year is Javier Van de Couter’s Thesis on a Domestication. Adapted from the homonymous novel by contemporary trans actress and writer Camila Sosa Villada, the film shines a spotlight on Villada herself, who masterfully embodies a protagonist who refuses to succumb neither to norms of success and family nor the expectations of life as a trans woman. A bold portrait of a woman who defies definition, and must navigate the cost of her iconoclastic life.
Also screening in the OutLook competition is the BRazilian film Baby by Marcelo Caetano. The film follows 18-year-old Wellington (Baby), who finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo after being released from a juvenile detention center. Without any contact from his parents, he lacks the resources to rebuild his life. He encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving. Gradually, their relationship turns into a conflicting passion.
Párvulos by Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban will be screened in the After Dark section of the festival, dedicated to body and folk horror. This coming-of-age is not your typical post-apocalyptic epic, but an absolute roller coaster of genre—a dark, gruesome, yet surprisingly sincere coming-of-age tale set in a world devoid of childhood innocence where family is the only hope for the future.
Additionally, four Latin American shorts will be screened in different sections of the festival: from Mexico, Resonancia by James Choi will screen in “City & State Shorts: Now and Then” and Passarinho by Natalia García Agraz in “Comedic Shorts: Doing the Most”; and the Cuban-Mexican coproduction Black Shadow by María Salafranca and the Chilean co-produced short Perfectly a Strangeness by Alison McAlpine on the “Experimental Shorts: The Act of Seeing” category.
The 60th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival runs from October 16-27.
