A goddess, a Romany queen, a diva, a woman in the know. These are some of the words that friends, colleagues and press use to describe the strong-featured Antonia Santiago Amador, a flamenco virtuoso whose mind-blowing charisma director Lucia Stojevic has captured in her documentary bearing the artist’s stage name, La Chana.
A born dancer, this 70-plus-year-old artist has been known in the flamenco world for a long time, but Stojevic finally reveals the bitter and beautiful story behind her accentuations and steps pulsating with power, passion and sorrow. She takes the viewer into a world where La Chana spent the most ecstatic years of her career; a place where community is everything and violence isn’t reason enough to end a marriage.
Stojevic captures La Chana’s portrait with all its nuances, from the ferocious star to the Hello Kitty -clad geriatric. She reveals what fame and success feel like, but also how much aging hurts someone who works with her body. Throughout the film, the scenes offer us fleeting shots of La Chana’s hypnotically fast feet and the tempo that even today’s musicians have trouble keeping up with.
Susanna Peltonen / Translation: Liina Härkönen
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
- Director: Lucija Stojevic
- Country: Spain, Iceland, USA
- Year: 2016
- Length: 82 min
- Age limit: null
- Cinematography: Samuel Navarrete
- Editing: Domi Parra
- Audio: Alejandro Castillo
- Music: Ernesto Briceño
- Production: Lucija Stojevic, Deirdre Towers / Noon Films
Showtimes:
- Kino Artis, hall 1: Friday 27.01 - 11:00 / Senior Screen
- Kino Artis, hall 1: Saturday 28.01 - 18:00