Rossana Baumeister: Last News

Holly Jones On the heels of a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and ahead of its bow in New Directors competition at San Sebastian, BFF, who heads international sales, has given Variety exclusive access to the trailer for Nicaraguan director Laura Baumeister’s debut feature, “Daughter of Rage.” The film follows 11-year-old María and her mother, Lilibeth, who navigate poverty by collecting and repurposing refuse from the local landfill. A look at stifling generational debt passed on in communities that work hard to stay afloat, the film also tackles precocious familial bonds, abandonment, and the salvation of an imagination that allows the protagonist to cope with uncertainty. 

Holly Jones A vast landscape of refuse and the community that survives by salvaging its waste is central to the plot in the debut feature from Nicaraguan writer-director Laura Baumeister.  “Daughter of Rage,” which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday, will also make its European premiere as part of the New Directors competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival later this month. The narrative follows 11-year-old María (Ara Alejandra Medal) and her mother, Lilibeth (Virginia Sevilla), who pick through a littered shore to ensure their survival. Lilibeth, forced to travel to town to settle debts, leaves María to fend for herself at a sweatshop where children sort garbage for resale. With newfound pal Tadeo by her side, María grapples with an uncertain future, dreaming up fantastic scenarios to cope with the abandonment that looms over her head like an eerily dark sky before a storm.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBrussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired Laura Baumeister’s feature debut “Daughter of Rage” ahead of its world premiere at Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals. Baumeister previously directed the shorts “Isabel im Winter” which played at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2014 and “Ombligo De Agua” which screened in Rotterdam and Clermont-Ferrand in 2018.