The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo: The Love That Resists in the Gaze
This once-in-a-time debut film transports you to a space, apparently without context, apparently existing as a bubble, but once you go deeper, you realise how much we are all inside of it. The day-to-day reality of this small community is shown with such character and such a strong message, you can feel the urgency of what it needs to get across. This is the case for the FIPRESCI winner of the 8th edition of the BRIFF (Brussels International Film Festival): The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (La misteriosa mirada del flamenco, 2025), by Chilean director Diego Céspedes.
The film follows different gazes inside a community on the outskirts of society, which coexist with very strong contrasts of stereotypical male identity. There’s a community of mine workers, and there is a community, or more so, a family of transvestite people (male-identifying individuals who dress as women). They both have to coexist with a mysterious disease that is spreading very fast and, as our protagonist lets us know very early, is transmitted through the gaze.
Lidia, a very young girl, is our guide through this universe, as she is the “daughter” of Flamingo, one of the most charismatic characters of this family. It is through her eyes that we slowly start to understand what is really going on.
The film respects the gaze of young Lidia, but she tries to fight it a lot, tries to grow up fast, but these efforts are in vain, since she and her mother have less time than they thought.
The gaze not only transmits disease but also all the love that this community builds for each other. The way Flamingo looks at Lidia, and looks after her mother Boa (Lidia’s grandmother), shows a community that strongly takes care of one another and lives in harmony. This is what’s stopping Lidia from finding the answers that she needs to be able to move forward; this love and protection hide something.
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo walks a line of sensitivity that has not been seen in many debut films, certainly not from a young director such as Céspedes. We are seeing a sensitivity very much missed in the current landscape, not only among new authors but in the retelling of our time in such a tumultuous moment.
The gaze itself not only transmits disease but also true love and true protection. And when one really looks at it, behind the web of hatred and violence, and feels its warmth, the whole community is able to come together. As it happens, as well, in non-fiction.
Our FIPRESCI winner of the 8th edition of the Brussels International Film Festival also took the Grand Prix at the festival and the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2025.
Sofía Alvarez Salas
Edited by Amber Wilkinson
©FIPRESCI 2025