- With more than 30 films to her credit and regarded as a key figure in Latin American cinema, Sarmiento will participate in the Official Selection, out of competition
The 71st Valladolid International Film Festival will honor Valeria Sarmiento, one of Latin America’s most internationally renowned filmmakers, with the Honorary Spike Award and will screen Behind The Rain in its Official Section, out of competition—the film that, as the director herself has confirmed, marks the end of her career. In her latest work, the director explores the traces that childhood trauma leaves on the protagonist’s memory, continuing the examination of identity, desire, and power dynamics that Sarmiento has developed over more than five decades.
In Behind the Rain, Sofía, a recent psychology graduate, returns to her hometown of Valdivia just as the body of a young girl is discovered—an event that shocks the city and reawakens her memories of the sexual abuse she suffered during her childhood. The film, which had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, transforms this trauma into an intimate experience through black-and-white cinematography and superimposed images that reveal the connection between the present and a past that resurfaces in the protagonist’s memory.
Behind the Rain brings to a close a career that began in Chile in the 1970s with the documentary A Dream as in Colours (1972), which focused on a group of women who worked as striptease dancers in Santiago. Since then, Sarmiento has directed more than thirty films and built a filmography that is free-spirited and difficult to categorize, moving between documentary, melodrama, and other popular forms of cinema to challenge the roles imposed on women—always from a perspective marked by humor, irony, and a lack of solemnity.
After the 1973 coup d’état, Sarmiento moved to France, where she continued her career as a director and editor. Her first feature-length fiction film, Notre mariage (1984), received the Donostia Grand Prize for emerging filmmakers at the San Sebastián Film Festival. This film was followed by works such as Amelia Lópes O’Neill (1991), nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale; Elle (1995), selected for competition at San Sebastián; The Lines of Wellington (2012), nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice; The Wandering Soap Opera (2017), co-directed with Raúl Ruiz and awarded a special mention at the Mar del Plata Film Festival; and The Black Book (2018), nominated for the Golden Shell at San Sebastián.
Film editing was another discipline in which she excelled. Sarmiento worked on dozens of films and maintained a creative collaboration for decades with Raúl Ruiz, her husband and one of the great auteurs of world cinema, with whom she worked on more than 80 films. Following his death, Sarmiento has played a decisive role in preserving his legacy and is currently working with the production company Poetastros on the recovery, repatriation, restoration, post-production, and completion of Ruiz’s film The Penal Colony. Valeria Sarmiento’s career has also been recognized beyond the strictly cinematic sphere. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Valparaíso, and in 2022, she received the Medal of Honor from the French Senate. Her work has also been featured in international retrospectives at institutions such as the Cinémathèque Française, which have highlighted the originality and enduring relevance of her filmography. In its 71st edition, SEMINCI will honor a pivotal figure in Latin American cinema with the Honorary Spike Award.