PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Lila Avilés, director of the film Totem.
In her second feature film, Totem, after the successful debut with The Chambermaid in 2018, Lila Avilés brings the “everything” of life into her story as it depicts an almost matriarcal family as it surrounds around Tona, father to 8 years old daughter Sol, who has been sick a long time and whose sisters, wife and father are organizing a birthday party for. There’s a disfunctional and lovely family that empathizes with the audience, there’s the beautiful chaos, life and death intertwining. Finally, there’s a young girl coming of age before kids her age as she understands life better than most adults.
Totem: Seven-year-old Sol spends the day at her Grandfather’s home, helping with the preparations for a surprise party for her father. Throughout the day, chaos slowly takes over, fracturing the family’s foundations. Sol will embrace the essence of letting go as a release for existence.
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