Vancouver Queer Film Festival: Mía's compelling story of yearning transcends boundaries
By Craig Takeuchi, August 21, 2012
http://www.straight.com/article-760841/vancouver/vancouver-queer-film-festival-mias-universal-themes-transcend-boundaries (http://www.straight.com/article-760841/vancouver/vancouver-queer-film-festival-mias-universal-themes-transcend-boundaries)
Two universal themes of yearning—wanting what you haven't got and wanting the freedom to be yourself—find themselves wistfully conflicted in the well-crafted Argentine dramatic feature Mía . While the film includes transgender issues, writer-director Javier Van de Couter incorporates them not necessarily as a focal point but to inform and illuminate the depths of a layered, compelling story.
A demure, thoughtful trans woman named Alé (Camila Sosa Villada) ekes out a humble existence in Villa Rosa, a marginalized community for queer people and outcasts perched on the outskirts of Buenos Aires (it was inspired by a real-life shantytown destroyed in the 1990s). But Alé secretly pines for life beyond the fringe and it's this desire that propels the narrative's undercurrents.