Forastera

Mallorca. Teenager Cata (Zoe Stein) is soaking up the sun, smoking furtive cigarettes, and enjoying a summer break with her grandparents and her younger sis. That is, until Cata’s beloved abuela Catalina suffers a fatal collapse. The girls’ mom rushes over to take charge, but their grandfather is distraught, finding solace only in Cata’s uncanny resemblance to her namesake.

Lucia Aleñar Iglesias’s debut feature is a coming of age drama, but also something more, with its sensitivity to such subjects as old age, death, and family dynamics across three generations. It even flirts with becoming a ghost story. Newcomer Zoe Stein is extraordinary as the young girl who feels herself in a strange way becoming her grandmother.

Cleverly playing with taboo, Iglesias’s debut proves an insightful, captivating look into the darker corners of grief through the familiar lens of a coming-of-age narrative.

Rafa Sales Ross, Variety

Quiet, pwerful and elegant… Forastera possesses a poetic, lyrical quality… Zoe Stein is a revelation… [she] should become a household name for this performance, and if she can keep up this level of acting, she will be a huge star sooner rather than later.

Bobby LePire, Film Threat

Director Aleñar Iglesias and the chameleonic Stein introducing themselves as ones to watch, if not outright revelatory talents from the word go.

Will Bjarnar, Next Best Picture