Una mujer fantástica

A fantastic woman

An exquisitely compassionate portrait of a trans woman in mourning for her lost lover, facing individual and institutional prejudice at every turn

“When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing. A chimera, that’s what I’m seeing.” These breathtakingly cruel words are said to Marina,a transgender woman in mourning for her dead lover Orlando, by Orlando’s ex-wife Sonia. Sonia speaks with such calm confidence, and such chilling certainty, it pulls the entire film and the problem it portrays into sharp focus.

Sebastián Lelio's film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2018, making it the first Chilean film to win that honour.

Marina is played by Daniela Vega, a Chilean actress and mezzo-soprano singer. She began studying opera with her grandmother from the age of eight. She attended an all-boys school and in her late teens realised she was transgender and began to transition. At the 90th academy awards in 2018, Vega became the first transgender person in history to be an Academy Award presenter.

Sebastián Lelio is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor. He was born in 1974 in Mendoza, Argentina but moved to Chile at the age of 2. Lelio graduated from the Chilean Film School (Escuela de Cine de Chile).
He has directed many short films and in 2003 released Cero, a documentary based on unedited material from the 2001 September 11th attacks in New York. He directed two seasons of the successful documentary series Mi mundo privado (My private life). The series followed the private lives of Chilean families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and was nominated twice for the Altazor Awards and also the Emmy Awards.

Lelio’s fourth film Gloria premiered at the Berlin International Film festival in 2013 to excellent reviews, with lead actress Paulina Garcia receiving the festival's best actress award.

Back to Programme