Beauty

Daniela Seggiaro’s assured feature debut is a haunting allegory about a teenage Wichí maid in a small Argentine village who is cajoled into betraying her beliefs. (The Wichí are indigenous to Argentina and Bolivia—see The Ethnographer, also in this year’s VIFF, for a documentary look into their way of life.)

"The story is narrated by adolescent servant Yola (Rosmeri Segundo)—part of the native group known as Wichi, living away from home out of economic necessity. The family’s daughter Antonella, around the same age, is about to celebrate her quinceañera, and Anto’s mother has been preoccupied with party planning for days. The birthday girl is as awkward as Yola is composed; particularly concerned with her unruly hair, Anto acts as if Yola (owner of long, silky black tresses) has the same concerns. Eventually, a group trip to the beauty shop leads to an ambush haircut, and Yola, who has never trimmed her hair, becomes physically ill… The picture’s heart is… in the woods, where… Yola’s people live quiet lives. Seggiaro recalls Terrence Malick in her idealization of this place: throughout the film, she cuts from petty household hubbub to a close-up of tree bark or rustling grass, over which Yola quietly speaks (in her native language) of childhood memories. The effect is simple but transporting, particularly powerful thanks to its thoroughly unpretentious delivery. As Yola adjusts to the removal of one more link to her community, the film needs little more than a string of remembered words and a carefully chosen image to suggest an entire culture at risk of losing its foothold in the world."—John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter