OUTFEST 2012: A MAP FOR A TALK

Javiera (Francisca Bernardi) and Roberta (Mora Andrea) in A Map for a Talk. 

A Chile reception

By Miranda Inganni

Set in two days in Santiago, Chile, A Map for a Talk (Mapa Para Conversar) addresses the difficulties of establishing a relationship with someone while an overbearing parent looks on with distrust and dismay.

Roberta (Moro Andrea) is raising her young son, Emilio (Romano Kottow), with her girlfriend, Javiera (Francisca Bernardi). The tension between the lovers quietly simmers while they go about their daily lives, but it is clearly taxing the two women. One afternoon Roberta joins her mother, Ana (Mariana Prat), for coffee specifically to tell mom about her relationship with Javiera. A rather conservative woman with an uncomfortable past association with the politics of Chile's Pinochet regime, Ana is more concerned with her own image than her daughter's happiness.

Roberta decides that a day at sea on a relatively small sail boat is exactly what the three women need in order for her mother to be comfortable with Roberta’s lifestyle. What starts out with somewhat forced familiarity quickly turns to inebriated loss of inhibitions, which in turn leads to uncomfortable confrontations. Roberta and Javiera bicker. Roberta and Ana berate each other. Ana and Javiera butt heads.

While the dynamics between the two lovers is explored in writer-director Fernandez Constanza's A Map for a Talk, it is the relationship between mother and daughter that is at the heart of the film. Ana is not homophobic, she essentially approves of Javiera, but she clearly believes her daughter is not living up to her potential.


A Map for a Talk screens at Outfest 2012: July 14, 7:15 p.m., DGA 2; July 21, 2 p.m. DGA 2. For more information: A Map for a Talk.