As reminders that ignorance, bigotry, and hate can literally kill, stories about the AIDS epidemic will always be relevant. The latest, beautiful example arrived courtesy of Chilean writer-director Diego Céspedes, whose feature debut The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar. Although the film may lack a narrative beat or two to fully take flight, it’s nonetheless a finely crafted, deeply affecting tribute to love and community––a piece of proudly, vitally queer art.

Set in 1982, the film takes place among a remote desert town in northern Chile. Not much goes on except at the town canteen, where miners mingle with a group of cross-dressing performers, including the charismatic Flamingo (played by Matías Catalán). Flamingo has a 12-year-old daughter, Lidia (Tamara Cortés), who’s bullied by the neighborhood boys because they claim her mother and other “perverts” from the canteen are responsible for the “Plague”––an unknown,...