The Chambermaid

by Lila Avilés

Synopsis

 

 

Logline

Eve, a timid hotel maid confronts her work-days through quiet examination of forgotten belongings and incipient friendships that nourish her budding, dreaming for a better life.

Synopsis

Eve is a young hotel maid who works in a hotel in Mexico City. She tries at all costs to seek an ascension, she is focused on her job, avoiding seeing her son. Eve enrolls in the adult education program where they offer to get ahead. There she meets some workers which whom she begin a friendship and starts breaking rules, discovering more and more from her by understanding others from curiosity. Eve even establish a long distance love relationship. Little by little in that search, she will reveal more and more truths about herself and a fervent need to move forward. She will open doors both physical and internal as a metaphor for her own day to day.

Specifications

Mexico  2018  102mn  2.35:1  5.1  Spanish  1st Feature Film

Original title: La Camarista

Directed by

Lila Avilés

Produced by

Lila Avilés & Tatiana Graullera (Limerencia)

FOPROCINE México

Bad Boy Billy Production (Axel Shalson)

La Panda Productions (Jana Diaz-Juhl & Pau Brunet)

Bambú Audiovisual

Written by

Lila Avilés & Juan Carlos Marquéz

Crew

DOP –  Carlos Rossini

Editor –  Omar Guzmán

Sound Design – Guido Berenblum

Production design –  Vika Fleitas

Cast

Gabriela Cartol (Eve)

Teresa Sánchez (Minitoy)

Agustina Quinci (The Argentinean Mother)

Festivals

Toronto IFF 2018 – Discovery (World premiere)

San Sebastian IFF 2018 – New DirectorsCompetition (European premiere)

Busan IFF 2018 – Flash Forward

BFI London FF 2018 – First Feature Competition

La Orquidea IFF Cuenca 2018 (Equator) – CompetitionÓpera Prima Iberoamericana, Best Direction for Lila Avilés and
Best Actress award for Gabriela Cartol

Morelia IFF 2018 (Mexico) – Premio Guerrero de la prensa ficcion and  Ojo for Mexican Feature Film

Tofifest IFF 2018 (Poland) – Forward !

Rio de Janeiro IFF 2018 (Brazil)

Minsk IFF “Listopad” 2018 (Belarus) – Best Feature film Award and FIPRESCI Award

AFI Fest 2018 (USA) – New Auteurs

Stockhom IFF 2018 (Sweden) – Competition

FILMAR en America Latina 2018 (Switzerland) – Focus Sud

Festival International du Film de Marrakech 2018 (Morocco) – Jury Prize for Lila Avilés

Singapore IFF 2018 – Cinema Today

La Habana FF 2018 (Cuba) – Special Jury Award

Palm Springs IFF 2019 (USA) – Cine CV Award : Honorable Mention

Hong Kong IFF 2019 – Latin American Cinema

Istanbul IFF 2019 (Turkey) – No More Flower Section

MOOOV Film Festival 2019 (Belgium) – Competition

ARIEL Mexico – 10 Nominations Ariel for Best First Feature Film

San Francisco IFF 2019 (USA) – Best Feature film

Taipei IFF 2019 –  International New Talent Competition

Transbaikalia FF 2019 (Russia) – CompetitionBest Director

Jerusalem Film Festival (Israel) – Debut

Festival de Lima (Peru) – CompetitionBest First film and Special Mention of  the jury

World Cinema Amsterdam – CompetitionJury Award

Festival Internacional de Cine De Santander (Colombia) – Competition (Entre Luces y Sombras)

Freealize Pelicula (Romania) – Competition

Athens Film Festival – International Competition

Films from the South (Norway) – New Voices Competition

Mexico’s Oscar Candidate 

Festival Internacional de Cine de Antofagasta – Best International Film

Cinema Tropical Best First Latin American Film

 

Bio - Filmo

Lila Avilés studied Direction and Performing Arts with some of the leading theatrical figures in México such as Martin Acosta, Sandra Felix and Juliana Faesler. She also studied film writing with Beatriz Novaro and Paula Marcovich. After her beginnings as a theater actress she moved into directing. Her work as a director includes “Gardenia Club”, “Microdermoabrasión” (National Theater Award), “Antígona” and “The Chambermaid” – that would become the inspiration for her first feature film. She has also directed the operas “Cossi Fan Tutte” and “Alcina” by Mozart and Händel respectively. Lila´s latest play as a producer and actress, “Nothing” and “Everything” by Janne Teller, opened in January 2018 at the UNAM theater in Mexico City.

Press Quotes

Our sense of exploitation and alienation is palpable, but the moments of beauty, tenderness and freedom that punctuate the drudgery provide flickers of humanity that feel almost miraculous. A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Amid Luxury, a, Entracing Drudgery ;  …A lesson likely to transform the way we perceive an entire category of our fellow humans.  Peter Debruge, Variety

This quiet profile of Mexico’s working class is close to perfect. Tim Robey, The Daily Telegraph

Lila Avilés is the Mexican actor-turned-director who makes a terrifically assured feature debut with The Chambermaid: an eerily atmospheric, poignant, disquieting movie about 21st-century luxury and the invisible servant class required to maintain it. It is a film to put alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, in that it’s about the emotional cost of submission.  Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian