09/07/2024 - Starring Chilean actress Lux Pascal and Spanish actor Paco León, the film tells the true story of the first female miner in a region where women had no access to this kind of work

Actress Lux Pascal during the set of Miss Carbón (© Andrea Martínez)

Shooting has just finished on Miss Carbón, a film directed by the Buenos Aires filmmaker Agustina Macri (known for her first feature film Soledad [+see also:
trailer
film profile], co-produced with Italy, and director of some episodes of Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s series Limbo), written by the Patagonian Erika Halvorsen (screenwriter on series such as El fin del amor, El nudo and Pequeña victoria) and starring the Chilean-American actress Lux Pascal (who, before making her gender transition, appeared in series such as Héroes invisibles, La Jauría and Narcos, alongside her famous brother Pedro Pascal). The film tells the true story of Carla Antonella Rodríguez, the first female miner in a region of Argentina where women were forbidden to work in the mines.

The cast is completed by the Spanish actor and filmmaker Paco León (awarded in Malaga Film Festival and nominated for a Goya for his works as a director, and recently seen in the comedies Un hípster en la España vacía and Co-Husbands [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and the Argentinean actors Laura Grandinetti (Bigli, Paisaje, Rojo) and Romina Escobar (Nosotros nunca moriremos, Brief Story from the Green Planet [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Filming took place over six weeks on location in the Basque Country and Patagonia. 

Miss Carbón is a story about overcoming, passion and dreams that do not understand gender, as Carlita managed to become the first female miner in a town where women were forbidden to access the main source of income in the region: the coal mine. For there was a superstition that women could cause a collapse and mining work was reserved exclusively for men. But, as a trans woman, she managed to enter the mine, breaking the system from within and igniting a spark of social revolution.

According to director Agustina Macri, "the courage shown by Carlita to fulfil her dream of being a miner and also a woman is something that pierced my soul from the day I read the script for the first time. With her strength and spirit, she is a prime example of what dreaming can achieve and that there is still a lot of ground to overcome as women and transwomen. But she, in that sense, brings hope.” 

And for producer Merry Colomer from Morena Films, “having a coffee with Erika was enough to know that this was a story I wanted to help tell: full of truth, light, and brave women. From a corner of Patagonia, Miss Carbón comes to confront the world with the present and the near future. And it’s wonderful to help contribute to this challenge.” 

Miss Carbón is a feature film by the Spanish company Morena Films in co-production with the Argentinean companies Pensa and Rocca Cine and The Warning of Rivard AIE, with the participation of the platforms Movistar Plus+ and Filmin. It will be released in Spanish cinemas distributed by Caramel Films and its international sales will be managed by the Italian company Fandango International Sales. 

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)