Tarde para morir joven

Similar to Shireen Seno’s NERVOUS TRANSLATION (also screened at the V’18), Dominga Sotomayor’s third and so far finest feature is set in the aftermath of a dictatorship: that of Augusto Pinochet whose sixteen-year long reign of terror ended with the presidential elections of December 1989. It’s a little later in TARDE PARA MORIR JOVEN, and hopes for new beginnings blossom at the strangest of places. Like the Andes’ lushly green foothills where sixteen-year old Sofía recently moved, into a village under construction far away from the big city. Being a teenager she simply can’t be happy under those (under any?) circumstances: not only because she’s there due to her grumpy-tough hombre of a father whom she’s decidedly less fond of than her mother (the parents separated); and not only due to the somewhat improvised way of life in sheds, with some of the settlers discussing whether they at all need electricity. For there’s mild man trouble, of course, with her fancying a slightly older guy while a boy her age gets casually ignored, a bit clumsy as he is, like most youngsters truly in love. Being a Pinochet-era child, Sofía feels at the same time younger and older than she is ... (Olaf Möller)

In the presence of Dominga Sotomayor.