Sebastián Silva (Chile, 1979)

In 2009, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva made an incredibly subtle and at the same time intensely emotional feature about a maid in a high middle class family, named La Nana. It’s a semi-autobiographical film, which has many recognizable situations for any middle class person who ever employed some kind of cleaning lady in their house. It’s a tense, South-American masterpiece, really.

His second film, Old Cats (2010), not only features the same actresses from his previous film in completely different roles, but also an 89-year old Bélgica Castro who acts terrifically as an old lady who just wants to conceal her memory loss while her daughter tries to take her apartment from her. Very sad but recognizable again.

In 2013, Silva released two adorable films with Michael Cera, one shot while waiting for the budget to come through for the other. As well the little, sweet Crystal Fairy as the heavier, almost horror flick Magic Magic, depict a crazy and very fun to watch Michael Cera. Sebastián also made a HBO series, The Boring Life of Jacqueline (2012), which I totally want to see but cannot find anywhere! (Please help me if you can.) He explained The New York Times how he got the idea to conceive that show: “I saw myself at my kitchen table siting alone eating too much sugary cereal. It came from my own alienation”. That makes me even more curious.

His next film will be filmed with 14 people, in 14 days and it’s about a gay couple, asking a girl for help in getting a baby. Silva himself will, for the first time, star in his own film. We are looking forward.

For more about contemporary Chilean cinema and Silva’s films in 2013, just go to Best Chilean films of 2012/2013/2014.