Rara

Pepa San Martín's 2016 Chilean film follows Sara, twelve, living with her mother and her mother's woman partner. Home life is ordinary; the looks at school and her father's anxiety keep turning it into something out of the ordinary, and Sara is caught between. The film draws on a real custody case; a judge in Chile removed custody of children from a mother on the grounds of her sexual orientation. San Martín builds the story entirely from the child's view and lets the adults' argument be heard through a gap in a door. Julia Lübbert's performance is natural. The closing section is left open and there is no emotional steering. Who it's for: viewers interested in Latin American cinema and films about the institution of the family. Who it's not for: anyone wanting an explicit political frame, or looking for plot.