The under-the-radar drama from the director of ‘The Wonder’ and ‘A Fantastic Woman’ was inspired by the feminist protests in Chile in 2018.
The under-the-radar drama from the director of ‘The Wonder’ and ‘A Fantastic Woman’ was inspired by the feminist protests in Chile in 2018.
Chilean director Sebastián Lelio has revealed details of his new film, The Wave, a Spanish-language production the director of The Wonder and A Fantastic Woman has shot under the radar in Chile over the past nine weeks.
A musical, The Wave was inspired by the mass demonstrations protesting violence against women that swept Chile in 2018, galvanizing the feminist movement in the country and leading to constitutional reform on the rights of women.
The film follows Julia (newcomer Daniela López), a Chilean music student who gets involved in the growing feminist movement on her university campus. While joining her friends in dancing and singing as part of the protests against gender-based violence, Julia revisits her own experiences of mistreatment. She unexpectedly becomes a central figure in the movement that is pushing for change in a society that is resistant to it. Produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue and Lelio, The Wave also stars Avril Aurora, Lola Bravo and Paulina Cortés.
Pablo and Juan de Dios’ Fabula produced the film, with Participant, who worked with Lelio on his Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, co-financing along with Fremantle, which has a first-look deal with Fabula. and Fremantle. Lelio co-wrote the screenplay to The Wave with Manuela Infante, Josefina Fernández and Paloma Salas. 17 female Chilean musicians, including Ana Tijoux, Camila Moreno and Javiera Parra, contributed to the film’s original soundtrack, alongside frequent Lelio collaborator Matthew Herbert.
“I am fascinated by the idea of using the musical genre with its aura of romance and splendor to speak about the inspiring young feminist movement in Chile, mutual consent in the post #MeToo era, and the political potential of the individual or collective voice,” said Lelio about his upcoming film. “The Wave explores the collision between the urgency for change and the status quo through the intoxicating power of dance, music and a band of masked women who are determined to change the world.”
“I was a teacher at the university when about 100 female students lay siege to its main building,” remembered co-screenwriter Manuela Infante. ” I stood very close to them and learned a lot from them. In fact, their experiences and stories are part of the foundations of this movie about what comes after the feminist uprising.”
Lelio’s international breakthrough was Gloria, a romantic dramedy centered around an older woman looking for love, which took best actress for star Paulina García at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival and was remade, by Lelio, as the English-language Gloria Bell starring Julianne Moore and John Turturro, in 2018. The same year, Lelio’s Chilean transgender love story A Fantastic Woman won the Oscar for best international feature. His most recent film was Netflix’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh, a mystery thriller set in famine-ravaged 19th-century Ireland.