Tengo sueños eléctricos

Valentina Maurel’s exhilarating debut feature tells the story of willful 16-year-old tomboy Eva, played with beguiling toughness by newcomer Daniela Marin Navarro. Scarred by her parents’ divorce, Eva discovers the pitfalls of her father’s misunderstood-enfant- terrible lifestyle when she abandons the safety of her mother’s house for his bachelor pad. In an intense father-daughter duet fueled by Eva’s undying loyalty and admiration, the father figure is a symbol of liberation, unfettered by the propriety embraced by Eva’s mother. He’s at once an inspiration for a young girl’s rebellion against the confines of gender roles and societal normativity and a haunting phantom of tormented masculinity. The tactile images of Díaz and Conard’s tense editing gorgeously preserve the story’s emotional rawness and spiraling rhythms. Actors Marin and Reinaldo Amien Gutierrez, the latter as the feckless, self-indulgent yet magnetic father, along with a fantastic supporting cast, fearlessly convey the soaring heights and nerve-wrecking lows of their characters’ mutual attachment. Maurel’s storytelling balances her female heroine’s youthful bewilderments with the anguish and triumphs of sexual exploration, while giving full breadth to the ways in which violence is habitually normalized in familial settings. (Ela Bittencourt)

In the presence of Valentina Maurel.

Valentina Maurel: PAUL EST LÀ (2016), LUCÍA EN EL LIMBO (2019)