THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO – Review by Diane Carson
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo profiles an isolated drag community
In the intriguingly titled The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Chilean writer/director Diego Céspedes’ debut feature profiles an isolated drag queen community living in a 1982 remote mining town. Amusing and dramatic, the story presents a serious, metaphorical commentary on a tragic misunderstanding of the AIDS epidemic. For nearby minors believe that as one man falls in love with another a mere gaze causes the illness, compromising the many mutual emotional and sexual attractions.
Explaining the film’s title while also channeling Chilean tradition, Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca) decides to name each person after an animal, hence Flamingo (Matías Catalán), one of the primary characters. Mama calls him Flamingo because he was fat when young and for his long legs. Adding a sensitive, observant perspective, the film guide through a series of celebratory events and distressing confrontations at the queer-run café-cabaret is Lidia (Tamara Cortés), an eleven-year-old abandoned outside what passes for the town’s canteen. Flamingo promised to take care of her, and Lidia, now twelve, thrives in the loving care of this queer family.
Setting events in northern Chile’s remote desert mining area eliminates any distracting issues to emphasize the fundamental humanity of the outcasts. In addition, it makes more believable the imaginative, surreal touches. For example, the fearful miners still visit the cabaret, enamored of the entertainers, but they avoid eye contact or force the queer residents to wear blindfolds, thereby avoiding the dangers of a direct gaze. This excludes what Céspedes calls “the love at first sight thunderbolt,” depicted later in the film as Lidia images lightning bolts shooting from Flamingo’s eyes in a sexual encounter with his lover Yovani (Pedro Muñoz).
In other scenes, Lidia is subjected to bullying by local boys, a sad commentary on male bravado. Providing release physically and emotionally, dancing and revelry alternate with the more serious themes. In press notes, writer/director Céspedes explains that the catalyst for this film came from his own experiences as a child at his mother’s hair salon. He remembers the trauma his mother experienced when two gay men with whom she was close contracted and succumbed to HIV. Through Lidia, Céspedes revisits those emotions.
Technically solid, cinematographer Angello Faccini seamlessly blends the somber with the uplifting, the light with the dark. Similarly, the music interprets contrasting moods expertly, with engaging performances, even with many nonprofessional actors in supporting roles. It’s clear that this is a film from the heart to which everyone brought their A game. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Chile’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Film, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is in Spanish with English subtitles.
