06 Mar 2019
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Chile, Germany, Spain, USA
2017
104 min
Chilean director Sebastián Lelio follows up his 2013 festival hit, Gloria, with another luminous and deeply involving portrait of an isolated woman. In A Fantastic Woman, Lelio has created an exquisitely compassionate portrait of the everyday obstacles of transgender existence. Marina is a young waitress and aspiring singer. Her partner, Orlando, is 20 years older and owns a printing company. When Orlando suffers a fatal aneurysm, Marina is suddenly treated with suspicion. By virtue of her gender identity she is treated like a criminal, with everyone from the doctors and Orlando’s family to the police seeing not a grieving woman, but an aberration. Marina’s defiant resistance makes for rousing, wrenching cinema.
Foreign Language Film Oscar 2018