The Chilean film Rara, directed by Pepa San Martín, will receive the Sebastiane Latino Award at the coming edition of the San Sebastian Festival. The Award goes to the Latin American feature film released during the previous year to best defend the demands and values of lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual people.
Key Points
The accolade also reflects the support lent to Latin American productions by the Sebastiane Award, now in its 17th edition, and the San Sebastian Festival.
The Jury, made up of members of GEHITU, the Basque gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual association, opted for the film, to be presented in the coming Horizontes Latinos section, telling from a teenager’s point of view the story of her mother, the lesbian judge Karen Atala, who had the custody of her children taken from her by the Chilean justice because of her sexual orientation. Atala took her struggle to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which finally condemned Chile.
The Jury also rated the way the film conveys “the internal enemy that all we LGBT people have, the internalized homophobia, that feeling which after years of repression may have taken brutal root inside us, preventing us from expressing healthy affectivity in society”. San Martín prompts her leading character, “for fear of non-existent rejection, to unleash a succession of events leading to an unpleasant situation for all those around her”.
They also highlighted the fact that Rara is a work directed, written and performed largely by women, “an obvious example of the strong presence of women in many films” participating in the fourth edition of the Sebastiane Latino Award.
Synopsis from Berlinale 2016
“So … do your Mom and Lia kiss in public?” · “Sometimes. Not that much.”
Since their parents split up, Sara and her younger sister live with their mother, whose new partner is a woman. Everyday life for the four of them is hardly any different than it is for other families. The situation is actually totally fine with Sara. But not everyone sees it that way – her father in particular has his doubts. As Sara’s 13th birthday approaches, she’s feeling rather overwhelmed: her first crush, a body in the midst of changes and to top it off, conflicts over loyalty with her parents … Everything feels wrong. The empathetic feature-length debut of director Pepa San Martín is based on a true story.
Pepa San Martín
The poster that reminds us film was in 2016 Berlinale where won the International Jury Grand Prix for Best Film in the Generation Kplus section.
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