The Chambermaid
Directed by Lila Avilés
Mexico | 2018 | Fiction | 102 min
Spanish w/ English subtitles
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Mexico’s official submission to the Academy Awards 2020
Sponsors: A Single Pebble
Also showing:
Sat, Oct 26 | 1:30PM | BB
The first feature film from theater director and actress Lila Avilés, The Chambermaid concerns a hotel housekeeper named Eve (played by the marvelously understated Gabriela Cartol) who dreams of a better life while grinding through her daily routine. Inspired by Sophie Calle’s 1984 photo collection L’Hotel, Avilés shot the film in just 17 days, using her own savings to fund the production. With a keen eye for detail and precise shot compositions that recall the minimalist cinema of Belgian master Chantal Akerman, Avilés frames the blue-collar tasks of the titular maid against the opulence of a luxury hotel in Mexico City and its wealthy patrons. And though the camera never leaves the hotel, considerable tension is generated through our fear that Eve will be caught deviating from the rigid demands of her job. Like Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, The Chambermaid is a humanistic film about class differences and the dehumanization of manual labor that celebrates the dignity of doing a job well. ~LB