The Wonder | Sebastian Lelio: the power of fiction

(Paris) Chilean director Sebastián Lelio is convinced of the “power” of fiction: beneficial when one of his Oscar-winning films recognizes transsexuality in the law, but dangerous when it comes to the aid of deadly ideologies in The Wonderhis new feature film.

Worn by the darling of British cinema Florence Pugh (Don’t Worry Darling, Black Widow, Midsommar…), this neatly photographed film will not be released in theaters, but directly on Netflix on Wednesday.

If it happens in the Irish moor of the XIX^e century, after the great famine, The Wonder has a universal scope, with the denunciation of the influence of “ fake news and fanaticism.

“It’s a film where rationality is confronted with fanaticism”, explains the director to AFP. “But, at its core, it’s not about religion, it’s about people claiming to have found the truth and twisting reality to fit their beliefs.”

In the film, an English nurse is called to the bedside of an 11-year-old girl, who claims not to swallow anything for months and miraculously survives. Around her, the village community, deeply religious, unites, preferring to let her starve rather than question her beliefs.

“They use this story politically, […] and I think it is something very topical today, in the era of “fake news“”, continues Sebastián Lelio.

“With the internet, millions of people can fall into the trap of stupid beliefs […] or in fascination with fascism, which is an effective use of narrative”.

“It’s very contemporary,” he adds, referring to the repression in Iran, “where belief generates so much grief and pain right now.”

Revelation with Luke Skywalker

Raised during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Sebastián Lelio, 48, knows what he is talking about: “I grew up in the south of Chile, very green, somewhat resembling Ireland. It was a very macho dictatorship in a very Catholic country. Even if the cultural specificities are different, I know these power dynamics”.

The director opposes them with the force of the narrative, artistic in particular. He lived it with the epic ofA fantastic womanhis Oscar-winning film starring transgender actress Daniela Vega.

This allowed the actress to launch a debate “which was able to educate and advance the whole (Chilean) society” and to materialize the adoption of legislation recognizing transsexuality, he recalls.

“It’s a story, become political, which translates into facts. We need to create ever better stories that can move our societies forward,” he says.

Like Almodovar on the other side of the Atlantic, he himself tells many stories of women, with actresses like Rachel Weisz or Julianne Moore, whether inspired by those he heard, little boy, his mother and her friends tell each other, in Gloriaor from the Orthodox Jewish milieu (Disobedience).

“I always feel like I’m walking alongside them, […] to cross the desert with them. I feel a kind of honor,” he continues.

Reference of a new Latin American cinema, Lelio tells a childhood in a family far from culture and books, that nothing predestined to be upset by the power of cinema.

Until the day he will see The Empire Strikes Back. “Luke Skywalker was going to enter the black star and I wanted to pee,” he says, smiling. “There, I had to decide: either I pissed myself on it, or I missed the climax of the film”.

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m pissing myself. It was a victory and a defeat at the same time, but something happened in me, an intimate conviction that what was happening made sense. […] I pissed myself, but it was my decision.