Between intimacy and social boundaries: Dominga Sotomayor at KINO ATHENS

Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor, known for her delicate portrayals of intimacy, memory, and social tension, is the focus of a special tribute at the 4th edition of KINO ATHENS, the International Independent Film Festival of Athens (March 12–22, 2026).

Under the title Independent Heroine: Dominga Sotomayor, the program presents her complete body of work – from her early explorations of family and belonging to her internationally celebrated films Thursday Till Sunday and Too Late to Die Young. At its center stands her latest feature Limpia (2025), which premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and makes its global Netflix debut on October 10, 2025.

With this tribute, KINO ATHENS continues to celebrate cinema’s most independent and fearless voices — where cinema remains free.

At the heart of the program lies the screening of her latest film, Limpia (2025), which had its world premiere on September 19, 2025, at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, opening the Horizontes Latinos section. The film’s global online premiere on Netflix is scheduled for Friday, October 10, 2025.

Dominga Sotomayor: Between Intimacy and Social Boundaries

Dominga Sotomayor is the first woman ever to win the Best Director Award at the Locarno Film Festival, and she has since shaped a distinctive voice in contemporary Latin American cinema. Her work delicately maps the intersections between psychological interiority and social inequality.

From Thursday Till Sunday (2012) to Too Late to Die Young (2018), Sotomayor has been internationally recognized for her masterful use of landscape, time, and silence, capturing how private lives are molded by external forces – family, place, class, social expectations, absence, and the longing to belong.

Her new film Limpia, based on the novel by Alia Trabucco Zerán, marks a turning point in her career and her first collaboration with Netflix. The story follows the relationship between Estela, a domestic worker from southern Chile, and Julia, the six-year-old girl she cares for daily. Through their bond, a subtle and ambiguous world of dependence, intimacy, and power unfolds – where invisible labor finds both a voice and a universal resonance.

With this retrospective, KINO ATHENS continues its mission to spotlight the most independent and free-spirited voices in world cinema – where film remains truly free.