Our review of the Chilean film ' The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' by Diego Céspedes.
Gazes (and the lack of the gaze) are tremendously important in the somewhat fussy but empathetic film by the Chilean Diego Céspedes, 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' (winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival).
Set perfectly in the western drama of love and HIV in northern Chile of the 80s, the film seeks to investigate the power of love vs. the power of prejudice in an area where men work in the mines. They reluctantly bond (some archival footage at the film's start shows them indifferent), yet they prefer to hang out at a queer canteen run by Mama Boa (the terrific Paula Dinamarca). Until HIV hits, and its prejudices take center, one of which tells that people can get infected simply by being gazed upon by an infected person. Saramago's 'Blindness' here takes a very rural turn.
Yet the film is the story of the 12-year-old, Lidia (the gutsy Tamara Cortés). Abandoned by her mother in the middle-of-the-nowhere queer canteen, she's being taken care of by the beautiful and caring (but sometimes reckless) Flamenco (Matías Catalán). In an almost Almodovarian fashion, Flamenco (an HIV-positive person )has love troubles of her own -with her violent and hopeless gay macho lover, Yovani (Pedro Muñoz). Throughout the film, Lidia needs to navigate the space between mute hatred, expressed violence, and definite care, and learn to choose the appropriate response for each occasion.
Diego Céspedes navigates the narrative and visual space as an opportunity for life lessons: group violence is showcased from the start (the bullying Lidia has to endure in the lake, a source of crime), yet it is presented as part of everyday life in the desert, where all characters operate. His emotive feel (in all kinds of sounds, gazes, and breaths) never loses its grip, even though the narrative tension falters after the first (dramatic) third of the film. A highly effective lake scene, entirely shot as a wide shot (which brings to mind similar themes in Laughton's 'The Night of the Hunter'), is followed by a post-grief narrative focus that doesn't fully stand up to the film's previous, highly charged part.
That said, 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' plays with the nuances, being more of a Joshua Logan mildly adventurous, mildly meditative 'Bus Stop'or 'Picnic' film than a full melodrama. The saloon atmosphere in the queer canteen (even with its pageant) still feels ingrained (and rightly so) in its American soil, with queer queens enjoying their moment of fame. At the same time, Lidia somehow disappears from the narrative, living her own sweet (but rather perfunctory) romance, and more queer characters (all with animal names) are here on display.
The final third of the film brings all threads together, adding a more optimistic (and realistic) vibe to the whole question of the plague (lack of love) it examines. The film misses opportunities to fully explore its wonderful vistas, and at times it feels forced to return to its characters too quickly. Yet its cinematography (especially the night scenes) deftly explores elements of magical realism (to which the film returns for its needed, re-connection ending). Its music, from the jazz trumpet sounds to the Latin sounds of the songs, always presents a Western feel as a fine homage, now adapted for its queer content.
The ensemble performance effort does miracles for the film; like Lydia, we feel the characters breathing and, as the title suggests, we get lost in their Gaze. 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' is a welcome mix of Western tropes and queer drama, not always realized to its fullness; it still works as a deeply empowering story of an era (the AIDS epidemic) and stigmatized people who offer unabashed care -instead of blindfolds.
Vassilis Kroustallis
