Sara has attempted to fit in with her classmates, but by the beginning of her senior year, she can’t really be bothered anymore to hang with the other teens at school or try to rekindle a dissatisfying relationship with the boy next door. Isolating herself in the smoky haze of a hidden alcove, she is content to live her life apart, spending contemplative solo afternoons in the soft Quito sunlight. That solitude ends when new girl Andrea transfers to the high school and finds her way into Sara’s alcove to share a smoke. The girls quickly become inseparable, discovering a mutual love of live music and tentatively sharing feelings of alienation, of “being weird” in a restrictive culture that doesn’t welcome much difference. Micaela Rueda’s beautifully observed debut captures the obsessive euphoria of falling in love, focusing on the secluded, dreamy moments when it seems that the world is inhabited by only two people. Laced within the intoxication of the girls’ passion is the volatile threat of social and parental rejection, endangering their private sphere. Will they have the courage to follow their hearts, to embrace and proclaim their love?

— Leah LoSchiavo

Co-presented by:

Cine+Mas - San Francisco Latino Film Festival

Galería de la Raza