Dominga Sotomayor is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Latin American cinema. Born in Santiago, Chile, she has developed a subtle and sensorial cinematic language, characterised by intimate narratives and characters in transition. With Tarde para morir joven (2018), she became the first woman to win the Leopard for Best Direction at the Locarno Film Festival. Set in post-dictatorship Chile, her work is a lyrical portrait of adolescence and the promise of freedom in a country undergoing reconstruction. Since the beginning of her career, Sotomayor has explored themes of memory, family and coming of age, with a focus on detail, natural light and silence as narrative tools. Films such as De jueves a domingo (2012) and Mar (2014) unfold with gentleness. Her participation in collective projects, such as The Year of the Everlasting Storm, reflects a cinema deeply attuned to the present.

At Batalha, Dominga Sotomayor will deliver a masterclass as part of a retrospective that includes the filmmaker’s feature films, a selection of short films and a carte blanche.