The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

(Diego Céspedes, 2025, Chile/France/Spain/Belgium/Germany, 109 minutes)

Set in a remote Chilean mining town in 1982, Diego Céspedes’ dazzling debut feature follows young Lidia, who grows up within a vibrant queer household led by drag performers and trans women. When a mysterious illness—rumored to spread through the gaze between men—sows fear and hysteria, the community becomes the target of suspicion and violence. Through Lidia’s eyes, Céspedes crafts a haunting allegory of love, myth, and prejudice that reimagines the early AIDS era as a queer western with poetic intimacy and desert-dry surrealism. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo continues Chile’s proud legacy of queer cinema and was Chile’s 2025 submission to the Academy for the Best International Film Oscar.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

You may also like the following events from Webster University Film Series:

• This Thursday, 27th November, 07:00 pm, Orwell: 2+2=5 in Webster Groves
• Next Sunday, 7th December, 07:00 pm, What's Up, Doc? in Webster Groves
• Next month, 9th December, 07:00 pm, Hundreds of Beavers in Webster Groves

Also check out other Entertainment events in Webster Groves, Performances in Webster Groves, Festivals in Webster Groves.