Locarno Open Doors: “Diamond” Backed By Empatia, Maravilla

Maravilla Cine, Buenos Aires producer of the 2018 Berlin Panorama player “Marilyn” and San Sebastian 2020 New Directors’ hit “That Weekend,”has boarded “Diamond” (“Diamante”), the first fiction feature from Bolivia’s Yashira Jordán which is shaping up as one of the standout titles at this year’s Locarno Open Doors.

Maravilla Cine joins “Diamond”Empatia Cinema is the lead producer and has been rapidly consolidating its position as a production center for Bolivian auteurs. Recent credits include Martín Boulocq’s “The Visitor” which premiered at June’s Tribeca Festival and Alejandro Quiroga’s Western “Los de abajo,”In March 2021, a Sanfic Industria pixs-in-post winner.

Empatia Cinema, Maravilla Cine applied together for a grant from Ibermedia’s regional film fund for Latin America. Spain, Portugal and Latin America. The incentives will be announced in late November, said Empatia’s Alvaro Olmos Torrico.

“Diamond” taps into two trends powering ever more of the best cinema coming out of Spain and Latin America: The emergence of female auteurs mixing local detail and magical realism or horror tropes to pointed effect: Think Elena López Riera’s Cannes success “The Water” or Michelle Garza Cervera’s “Huesera”; the flowering of LGBTQ universes in conservative bastions – such as rural Latin America or traditional Indigenous communities – as a haven of freedom for establishment rebels.

Produced by Empatia Cinema’s Olmos Torrico, Jordán and Maravilla Cine’s Paula Zyngierman, “Diamond”As a coming of-age drama, Petra weighs in. Petra lives in a town in Bolivia’s Andes, grating at the traditions of her community, including its total subordination of women who are supposed to cook, bear children and serve their menfolk at prestes, three-day celebrations dedicated to the Catholic Virgin or the Sun. Petra, on the other hand, is not a fan of pollera and sings hip-hop trap in her Quechua language.

One day she gets a message form her father. His expulsion from her family had occurred years prior. Escaping to La Paz’s El Alto – Bolivia’s capital city – she reconnects with him, and realizes the vital power of transformation.

“Petra is a rebel, and she must find her community to heal. This is how she discovers the Andean Queer Universe, where she can finally feel a sense of belonging,” Jordán said in a director’s statement.
“Pop culture, exaggerated kitsch images, neo-Andean buildings, and fluorescent colors are part of the urban landscape of El Alto city, where Petra gets lost looking for her father. In that fusion of magic realism and rawness of my Bolivian culture, I see how the characters in this film can develop and shine,”She added.

“Diamante” is a risky and critical bet for Bolivian cinema to bring to the forefront the complex situation of the LGTBIQ+ community,” added Olmos. “From the understanding of our Bolivian context, we believe that more productions directed by female filmmakers are needed. For this reason, we trust Yashira’s talent and the sensitive story she developed in this project.”