Song Without a Name

The first film directed by a Peruvian woman to screen at Cannes is a visually striking, elegiac look back at Peru’s not-so-distant dark history. 

Georgina, an Andean peasant woman living by the coast, is drawn to Lima by a radio ad for a private clinic promising free medical care. After giving birth, her daughter is stolen from her. When the clinic then mysteriously disappears and her pleas for assistance are met by government indifference, Georgina seeks help from Pedro, a journalist who is also an outsider in the perilous political climate of 1980s Peru.

Inspired by real events, reported on by her father in 1981, Melina Léon’s first feature constructs a mesmerising underworld of crime and corruption with racism and inequality at its black heart. Shot in Academy ratio, this bold, beautiful film’s stunning black-and-white photography will remind audiences of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. This is a significant, deeply affecting debut.

“A bold, beautiful debut ... Léon seems firmly in command of the material, bringing a strong voice and an even stronger eye to this Kafka-esque tale of low crimes and high-level corruption.” – Hollywood Reporter