Director: Constanza Majluf, Writer: Constanza Majluf, Producers: Mané Garrido & Constanza Majluf, Executive Producers: Constanza Majluf & Mané Garrido, Language: Spanish, Chile, 2020, 10′, Rights: World
When Mili (Emilia Noguera) visits the isolated town where her grandmother recently passed away, she meets a man who is mysteriously acquainted with her. He reveals a secret that will bind the three of them beyond death.
Mili lives outside of Chile and couldn’t arrive on time to see her 80-year-old grandmother Elisa before she passed away. She and her grandmother used to communicate well, they had a relationship in which things were talked about, but there were certain topics in which Mili preferred not to delve, for fear that her grandmother would not understand her and would end up distancing herself, like the gender of her partner.
Mili comes to realize that her grandmother also kept a secret that will bind them beyond her death.
This project was shot in the coastal town of Tongoy, northern Chile. The cast in its majority is from the community of Tongoy.
Directors Statement
My grandmother was the daughter of an immigrant who decided to come to Chile to find better opportunities.
Being the fourth generation in Chile, I can say that the cultural gap between us is abysmal.
The irony is that I was really close to my grandmother, yet, I always had to keep a distance. I was able to talk about every topic (the feelings and the ways of solving the problems that arose) but I was never able to speak about the specific gender of the person I loved, for fear of prejudice and the distance that this could provoke in our relationship.
I would like this story to be a way of talking about the “acceptance” of diversity. It is not simply “accepting” others as they are, but also including diversity and understanding the uniqueness of each person. Just as Mili would have wanted her grandmother to understand her diversity, she must also come to terms with the uniqueness of her grandmother’s experiences.
About the Director
Constanza Majluf is a Chilean filmmaker based in New York, with over ten years of experience in different capacities. Eager to promote collaboration with women filmmakers worldwide, she has participated in projects in Chile, Spain, Perú, Cuba, and the United States.
Constanza’s projects tell stories that explore contradictions that pulsate with desire and human fragilities. Boundaries are blurred in search of human nature, as in her short film “The Assumption of Agustina” where a transgender woman says goodbye to her biological body or “Santa Lucia” where the protagonist finds the most intimate experience in the most public place. Her latest short film “Still” goes even further, exploring relationships and secrets that bond families beyond death. Her upcoming short film, “My Independence Day” was awarded the “Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant 2020” (in pre-production).
Currently, she is developing her first feature film, “Marcia Marcela”, which in one year has won the Albert P. Sloan Screenplay Award 2020 (Columbia University), funding from the Chilean Ministry of Culture 2021, and was selected by the prestigious screenwriting lab “Cine Qua Non-Lab” (Mexico) and the European and Latin-American co-production lab ESTE (Perú).
CAST
Emilia Noguera (MILI)
Lida Tokarew (ELISA)
Carolina Silva Tokarew (CAROLINA)
Manuel Tello (TELLO)
FESTIVALS
37th Miami Film Festival, Official Selection
Latino Film Market 2020
16th Santiago Intl Film Festival 2020
21th CINELEBU International Film Festival 2021 (Chilean Oscar® Awards qualifier)
25th Zaragoza Film Festival