A Fantastic Woman

Marina Vidal is a young waitress and singer in Santiago. Her relationship with Orlando, an older man, appears in its ordinary tenderness before his sudden collapse. The film follows the days afterward, as hospital staff, police and Orlando's family question her account, her right to grieve, and her access to the flat and the dog they shared.

Critics praised Daniela Vega in the central role and Lelio's control of tone, noting the film's movement between naturalism and heightened, almost dreamlike passages. Reviewers pointed to the recurring mirrors and to Matthew Herbert's score, and to the way the film declines to treat Marina as a case study. Several set it beside Lelio's earlier Gloria while finding it cooler and more formally adventurous.

For the consulting room, the film offers a study of mourning that others obstruct, and of a person whose identity is repeatedly contested by institutions and family. It shows suspicion, projection and the withdrawal of recognition, and the effort of holding a sense of self when the surrounding world refuses to reflect it back. The closing scenes follow one figure's search for a private way to say goodbye.