‘Gloria’ Star Paulina García Preps Directorial Debut, ‘The Passion According to Carmen’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Chile’s Paulina García, winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear for her performance in Sebastian Lelio’s “Gloria,” is poised to direct her first feature, “The Passion According to Carmen” (“La Pasión según Carmen”).

Described as “the coming-of-age story of an adult woman” it follows Carmen, a journalist, whose life appears – at least on the surface – to be happy and stable. She has close friends, a comfortable life and is married to Nico with whom they have a 20-year-old daughter. But Carmen is bereft over her grandmother and best friend, Mar, who has died.

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On her 50th birthday, Carmen follows her estranged daughter to a feminist protest, where a rock to the head sparks an unexpected awakening. Rescued by a group of women and taken to Santiago’s Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, she meets Lina and is drawn into a sensual, liberated world, triggering a profound transformation.

“This is Carmen’s passionate, perimenopausal, curious, rebellious, funny and intense process of shedding her skin and crossing to the other side, driven by the ghost of her grandmother, the conflict with her daughter and the confusion that comes with an uncontrollable desire for another woman,” the synopsis goes.

“The Passion According to Carmen” is based on an original idea by García and Mariana Loyola (“Rara,” “The Maid,”), who co-wrote the screenplay alongside Josefina Fernández (“The Wave,” “Vencer o Morir”). Loyola plays the titular Carmen while Garcia is Carmen’s newfound passion, Lina.

García and Loyola launched a new production company, Cautiva, in a bid to develop and produce femme-oriented original content. For “…Carmen,” their first feature, they are co-producing with Storyboard Media’s Gabriela Sandoval and Carlos Núñez, who recently attended the Premios Platino, aka the Platinos Xcaret, in Mexico earlier this month.  

Talks are underway with renowned Latin American actors and actresses to complete the cast, while also on the lookout for international co-production partners.

Said García: “Mariana and I experienced together, both personally and in the streets, the feminist wave of #MeToo, #NiUnaMenos and Chile’s #SocialOutburst. During the COVID lockdown, we began asking ourselves which women had been shaken by that wave. What happens to a woman from another shore when she crosses the river and encounters ‘All of Us’?”

“’Carmen’ became the vessel for our concerns. At first, it was about writing for ourselves, developing ideas, and finding ways to bring them to life so we could work. For me to direct, and for Mariana to star, was a natural consequence if we truly wanted autonomy in the creative process,” she continued, adding: “We want to explore the impact of fourth-wave feminism on women over 50. We want to portray the physical and emotional transformation women experience in adulthood. What happens when women live in freedom? Will we ever truly be free?”

For Sandoval, the “The Passion According to Carmen” “takes place in a territory rarely explored in international cinema: the emotional, political and sexual awakening of a woman in adulthood. It is a project with strong distribution potential, not only because of the universality of its themes, but also because of the uniqueness of its perspective.”

“For us, as producers, it is especially meaningful to support the first feature by one of Ibero-America’s most important actresses. This is a film that connects the intimate with the political, reflecting one of the great strengths of Chilean cinema today: the ability to tell stories deeply rooted in their own territory while resonating globally.”