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‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’ Review: A Chilean Drama About HIV and Transgender Romance
Set in the 1980s, Diego Céspedes’ period drama 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' battles bigotry with both vengeance and compassion.
The women — a lively, fun-loving group with colorful adopted names like Piranha, Lioness and Star — take gentle revenge on Lidia’s behalf by holding the young boys’ eyelids open and forcing them to stare into their eyes, portending a meaningful symbolism. These paradoxical romances — accompanied by the stirring horns of Florencia Di Concilio’s musical score — are entwined with the persistent possibility of tragedy, especially when the local miners decide to impose restrictions on the women’s movement, to the point of entering their home and forcibly blindfolding them. Although the movie meanders on occasion, and never quite finds the right rhythm for its more traditional dialogue coverage — these scenes have a more stilted quality — “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” bursts to life in its isolated, wide-shot tableaus of individuals and couples in motion, embodied by a committed cast of trans and genderqueer performers in leading roles.
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