"I'm going to show you a parade of my entire bestiary. They'll be showing off their art, their seduction, their beauty, their kindness, their talent and, of course, their mischief." With his first feature film, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+lee también:
entrevista: Diego Céspedes
ficha de la película], unveiled in Un Certain Regard at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes demonstrates his indisputable gifts as a filmmaker with a flamboyant, queer take on a rather risky subject, in a quirky style on the edge of storytelling and westerns - the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s, with its trail of unfounded, fantastical rumours stigmatising and ostracising the homosexual community.

The director's approach to this drama, which is clouded by the shadow of death and also raises questions of sexual identity, is baroque and in the tone of love. For we are in the middle of the desert, in northern Chile in 1982, in the deepest isolation. Just a stone's throw from a mining hamlet of deprived shacks stands Alaska House, a cabaret where crossdressers live: the leader Boa (the charismatic Paula Dinamarca), the very seductive Flamingo (the excellent Matías Catalan), Eagle, Lioness, Star, Piranha and Chinchillas. Then there's Lidia (Tamara Cortes), an 11-year-old abandoned child adopted by Pink Flamingo and all the other members of this very eccentric "family", who, between swimming and shows full of frills, don't hesitate to pull their punches, if necessary, in an exclusively male and very rough environment.

"The plague will infect you." Ignorance and guilt, fear and cowardice have given rise to a local legend: miners are said to fall ill when they meet the gaze of the House's inhabitants. Bodies are burnt, eyes are blindfolded, paranoia and insults reign, but nothing can be done about the passion between Yovani (Pedro Muñoz) and Flamingo or between Clemente (Luis Tato Dubo) and Boa. However, when there are hunters and prey, ‘blood and semen’, death and love intertwine in the dark corners of the lagoon. And young Lidia tries to make sense of it all, supported by her young friend Julio (Vicente Caballero)...

“I'm going to tell you what I know and you're going to imagine it.” By infusing his film with a pre-adolescent girl's quest for explanations and truth, Diego Céspedes invents his own cinematic territory, halfway between raw realism tinged with the western atmosphere and theatrical surrealism, all set against a sumptuous natural backdrop with a beautiful score by Florencia di Concilio. It's an aesthetic that adds to the appeal of a film whose allegorical dimension isn't exactly revolutionary, but which lives up to its promise as a daring crossover and a tribute to the rebellious, loving spirit (despite the suffering) of a close-knit community: “I may be a whore, a thief, a liar, but I'll never be a deserter”.

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo was produced by Quijote Fims and Les Valseurs, co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, Weydemann Bros, Irusoin and Wrong Men. Charades will handle international sales.