The Wave (La Ola)

2018, Chile. Julia is a music student on a campus that is swept by a wave of protest, female students rising to denounce systemic harassment and abuse. Julia herself gradually realises what happened to her on a certain night with her teacher assistant but struggles to find the right words and speak up.

Director Sebastián Lelio previously directed invigorating crowd pleasers also centred on women, which rightfully garnered wide acclaim, from 2013 hit Gloria to 2017 Oscar winner A Fantastic Woman and 2018 Julianne Moore starrer Gloria Bell.

In The Wave, he acknowledges with humour the paradox of being a man behind the most outwardly feministic film of the year. And uses the musical genre, with its aura of romance, splendour, spectacle and escape, as a vehicle to speak about a challenging and urgent subject that appeals to all humanity today: the need to create a new paradigm that redefines the way men, women and sexual non-conformers, relate to each other.

A great, ambitious spectacle, often funny, truly moving.

One of the film's songs, FUNA, can be heard on this year's festival trailer.