saturday, march 21 / 8:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: In Lieu of Flowers, Forastera

Feature presentation \

This beautifully crafted, understated, and utterly absorbing first feature by writer-director Lucia Aleñar Iglesias is an intimate, inventive family drama. The story revolves around 18 year-old Cata and her sister who are spending a summer with their grandparents on the perpetually sunny island of Mallorca. When grandmother Catalina dies suddenly, the carefree tenor and sunny spirits of summertime and family life are forever altered. Cata, who was especially close to her grandmother (she was named after her), is devasted like the rest of her family, but finds an unusual way to deal with her grief. She begins to slowly morph into a version of the beloved Catalina, first by wearing one of her vintage dresses and by taking over the bulk of the domestic duties her late grandmother once fulfilled. Her behaviour, while not imitative exactly, initially confuses her grandfather and her mother, who arrives from the mainland. Each member dealing with the loss in their own fashion, the family begins, in a quiet, dignified way and strangely inspired by Cata, to rebuilt its shattered heart. Extraordinary.

Tom McSorley

Forastera won the International Federation of Film Critics' FIPRESCI Prize at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. The jury commented, "Lucia Aleñar Iglesias directs with restraint and precision, finding power in understatement. What might sound slight becomes luminous: a meditation on an adolescent’s first encounter with death, and a ghost story about how the past lingers in the present. Forastera is a quietly assured debut, simple yet transformative, marking Aleñar Iglesias as a filmmaker the FIPRESCI jury would like to bet on."

Short film \

In Lieu of Flowers

2025 / 8 minutes / Ontario
Director: Jessie Posthumus
Language: English

Matisse finds a ghost in her apartment on the day of her father’s funeral.