Princesita

Twelve year-old Tamara lives with a cult somewhere in the Mexican countryside. The cult leader Miguel wants her to become the mother of his son and successor, but first she gets to spend a year going to school with other kids in a regular school. The premise for Princesita is almost perverse, but Tamara's life with the cult is portrayed as rather idyllic and bathed in sunlight, to disturbing effect. However, the film also reflects Tamara's anxiety for the life that awaits her at the end of the year, and when she starts to become interested in her class mate Nicolas, her future is at stake. Or as one of the women in the cult puts it to Tamara: "Your body does not belong to you." CFO

Marialy Rivas (b. 1976) is a Chilean director and screenwriter. She studied at Chile's national film school, and was first noted for her short films Smog (co-directed by Sebastián Lelio) and Blokes, which was selected for the Cannes film festival. Her first feature Young and Wild screened at Films from the South in 2012.