Dominga Sotomayor’s Too Late to Die Young (Tarde para morir joven) starring trans actor Demian Hernández – who has transitioned since production – in the role of Sofía, and inspired by the director’s own childhood, opens on Friday, May 31 at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, and on Friday, June 7 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles, followed by other cities.

The film, from the producers of Call Me By Your Name, won the Leopard Award for best director at the Locarno Film Festival, marking a first for a female filmmaker in the 71 editions of the prestigious Swiss film festival.

During the summer of 1990 in Chile, a small group of families lives in an isolated community right below the Andes, building a new world away from the urban excesses, with the emerging freedom that followed the recent end of the dictatorship.

In this time of change and reckoning, 16-year-old Sofía and Lucas, and 10-year-old Clara, neighbours in this dry land, struggle with parents, first loves, and fears, as they prepare a big party for New Year’s Eve. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from those of nature.

Director Dominga Sotomayor studied Audiovisual Directing at Universidad Católica de Chile and a master’s in Directing at ESCAC in Barcelona. She developed her first feature Thursday till Sunday at the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence. The film won the Tiger Award in Rotterdam in 2012 and was screened in more than a hundred festivals. In 2013 she co-directed Island, that also won the Tiger Award. In 2015 she premiered her second feature film Mar at Berlinale Forum and the collective film Here in Lisbon produced by Indielisboa. In 2009 she co-founded Cinestación, a leading production company based in Santiago where she produces auteur filmmaking in Latin-America. Recently, she has been involved in Los Fuertes, by Omar Zúñiga (in post-production), Murder me, Monster, by Alejandro Fadel, premiered at Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2018, and Raging Helmets, by Neto Villalobos.