FILM SCREENINGS

Bad Intentions

2010. Peru/Spain/Germany. Directed by Rosario Gracía-Montero. With Fátima Buntinx, Katerina D’onofrio, Paul Vega. Following a string of widely acclaimed short films, Gracía-Montero has created an ambitious debut feature that manages to be simultaneously poignant, amusing, and a little unsettling. Eight-year-old Cayetana (an effortlessly natural Buntix) is a somewhat morose kid, captivated by reports of guerrilla attacks and fascinated with the lives and deaths of the heroes of Peruvian independence. When she learns that her divorced mother is pregnant, Cayetana becomes convinced that she will die on the day her baby brother is born. Her beautiful—and funny—dream sequences metaphorically explore the coming of age of a girl alert and sensitive enough to feel ambivalent about an uncertain future.