A mini Mubi retrospective offers a rare chance to see the work of one of South America’s most exciting young film-makers
You’ve probably noticed that bemoaning the lack of cinema release for certain outstanding films is a recurring theme in this column, so here’s a change of tune. One of the year’s loveliest arthouse releases did in fact get a big-screen
UK airing back in the spring, courtesy of plucky indie distributor Day for Night. Still, if you didn’t see or hear of Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s richly evocative growing-up study Too Late to Die Young, that’s understandable. It was in a handful of cinemas, and, the market being what it is, didn’t stick around for long.
Thankfully, Mubi.com is offering its subscribers a second chance to catch up with the film, as well as with Sotomayor’s earlier work. Just three films in and she’s already among the most exciting and distinctive talents in South
American cinema. Too Late to Die Young (not to be confused with Nicolas Winding Refn’s grisly-gorgeous TV series Too Old to Die Young, streaming on Amazon) went up on Mubi early last week and is probably the best place to start, being Sotomayor’s most fully realised and widely seen work to date. Prior to its UK release, it competed for best film at the
London film festival and won her best director at Locarno.