Verified source report
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo review – haunting queer fable burns with love and menace
Diego Céspedes’s striking debut mixes magic realism and melodrama in a tender tale of an LGBTQ+ community facing fear and superstition in 1980s Chile Here is a beautiful, raw debut from young Chilean director Diego Céspedes, a film that is part queer western, part beguiling fable, with some glorious scenes straight out of a Latin soap opera, magic-realist effects and moments of heartbreakingly tender emotion. It’s set in the early 1980s, in a mining town on the dusty edge of nowhere where a ramshackle establishment, something like a bordello in a spaghetti western, is run by a small LGBTQ+ community. By day, they serve up food to worn-out, dust-covered miners; by night, cabaret is performed in drag. The club is also raising a child, 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes), who was abandoned on the doorstep as a baby (possibly by parents who saw how well the club looks after its own). When Lidi
What happened
According to The Guardian’s source item, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo review – haunting queer fable burns with love and menace, Diego Céspedes’s striking debut mixes magic realism and melodrama in a tender tale of an LGBTQ+ community facing fear and superstition in 1980s Chile Here is a beautiful, raw debut from young Chilean director Diego Céspedes, a film that is part queer western, part beguiling fable, with some glorious scenes straight out of a Latin soap opera, magic-realist effects and moments of heartbreakingly tender emotion. It’s set in the early 1980s, in a mining town on the dusty edge of nowhere where a ramshackle establishment, something like a bordello in a spaghetti western, is run by a small LGBTQ+ community. By day, they serve up food to worn-out, dust-covered miners; by night, cabaret is performed in drag. The club is also raising a child, 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortes), who was abandoned on the doorstep as a baby (possibly by parents who saw how well the club looks after its own). When Lidi
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-11T12:00:54+00:00.
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Primary source: The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo review – haunting queer fable burns with love and menace via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo review – haunting queer fable burns with love and menaceThe Guardian - 2026-05-11T12:00:54+00:00
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