MIFF: The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is enchanting, enthralling and subversive, Ella O'Neill reviews.

Winner of the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes film festival and receiving an honourable mention at the Lima international film festival, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is a wildly profound, beautiful and heartfelt directorial and screenwriting debut from Diego Céspedes.

Diego Céspedes delivers a haunting experience in The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. (Image: MIFF)

The film follows a community of drag queens and transgender women within a mining community in the Atacama Desert, who work as performers in a local cantina called the Alaska House. The film takes place in 1982, the early stages of the AIDs epidemic.

In the Q&A post screening of the film, Céspedes spoke about his own experience as a queer man and his upbringing in suburban Santiago. He spoke about how in Chile the AIDS crisis is a piece of history that is rarely brought up, and that the queer community still face prejudice and discrimination today. “I really think that our times are very dark; we are seeing how fascism is coming back, and the first place that they are pointing is the queer community and the trans community.” It's this heavyweight on the queer community that drove The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, and it delivers this message beautifully.

Lydia is a 12-year-old girl who was abandoned as a baby. She lives with a group of performers at the local cantina and has grown up within the community. It is revealed early on that she was found as a baby by Flamingo, one of the performers and brought to live with the group. Flamingo identifies as Lydia's mother; however, it becomes clear that she has been raised in a communal setting by the whole group of performers, and also largely by the matriarchal figure of Mama Boa. Lydia faces bullying for being different, and also being raised among the performers; however, she has a strong support network from the performers, who evidently look out for her and protect her.

It becomes evident early on that Flamingo has “The Plague”. An unsettling and deadly illness that is spreading through the community, which has her periodically coughing up blood and is responsible for the deteriorating health of some of the women and miners. The women tell Lydia that Flamingo has the illness because it is spread through a magical gaze between two male lovers. 

Cinematographer Angelo Faccini creates sharp and striking shots for Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. (image: MIFF)

Within the mining community, there is a lot of tension and shame around homosexuality and queerness that looms over everyone. The men come to see the women perform, and some have secret, shameful, and often violent relationships. Initially, the community appears to have been somewhat tolerant of the trans women and drag queens, but is not openly accepting of the lifestyle. As the miners hear and see more of the mysterious illness, swift blame and hostility are directed at the women. 

During a talent contest at the cantina, a young miner called Yovani intrudes on one of the talent shows at the local Cantina where Flamingo is performing. He accuses her of giving him the mysterious curse and threatens to shoot her and everyone else in the room. Mama Boa swiftly shuts down the prospect of a violent shootout, and we see that she and the other women are no strangers to threats of violence and hostility from the miners, although the scene is still riddled with a haunting tension and uncertainty. 

Lydia, who is watching the performance and subsequent interruption, silently watches. She does not understand what this illness is, or why people make up stories when she asks how it happens, or if it can be cured. She is certain that she is being lied to, but can’t understand the societal and cultural nuance as to why. 

The film utilises exceptional cinematography. Cinematographer Angello Faccini’s shots are beautiful and emotive. Each shot feels very intentional, in a way that captures not just the contrasting atmosphere of both the figuratively and literally hostile landscape in the desert and mining town with the warmth and safety of the cantina and the family of performers. 

The film has been described as a Queer Western, as it follows many conventions of the western genre, while the theme of queerness and love are central to the film, as it explores complex themes such as Isolation, power, found family and unity. It can be argued that the violence and prejudice against women in this film are largely linked to the miners working away from their lives and families in harsh conditions, as they are alone and deeply afraid of this mysterious illness. Their “love” affairs are plagued with shame and fear, and the women are scapegoated because they are deemed as strange and mystical. The film also has elements of magical realism that can feel slightly confusing, but also somehow fit seamlessly into the story as the line between truth and folklore is blurred.

Another aspect of the film that was explored was the violence within relationships and the twisted power struggles that can form within partnerships of violent people. One scene between Flamingo and a drunk Yovani has the audience holding their breath in suspense, as we see them slip from a seemingly playful couple swimming in the lake in the moonlight, to a both subtle and then perverse act of violence. This tension is held with a deeply emotional original soundtrack by Florencia Di Concilio. 

Found family, unrequited love and deep humanisation of the unknown underly The Mysterious gaze of the Flamingo (Image: MIFF)

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is a beautifully humanising film that sheds light on the immense suffering of marginalised and ostracised groups, without dimming the unwavering strength and support that these people have found within each other. In his directorial debut, Cespedes has struck a nerve that will stay with me for the rest of my life, and I eagerly await his future endeavours.

9/10