Cannes 2025: Magnificent Chilean Musical ‘The Wave’ is Empowering
by Alex Billington
Could 26, 2025
The Cannes Movie Pageant is as soon as once more that includes a never-seen-before musical that can shock and shock and dazzle audiences. Final 12 months, Jacques Audiard’s formidable (and finally controversial) musical Emilia Perez premiered at Cannes. This 12 months, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio’s new movie The Wave premiered at Cannes – although not within the Fundamental Competitors. The Wave (initially referred to as La Ola in Spanish) is one other massively formidable, audacious, vivid fashionable musical daring to sing & dance to songs about uncomfortable matters and difficult conversations. Lelio’s The Wave is impressed by the 2018 feminist protests at main universities in Chile that 12 months, which have been a part of the worldwide #MeToo motion (simply earlier than the pandemic arrived). It is a story about one younger girl named Julia, although it is also a narrative about all girls and the way misogyny nonetheless guidelines on this patriarchal society. It is an empowering film about girls standing up, preventing again, and by no means giving up till there may be change. A powerful creation! This shook me up & left me in awe.
La Ola is the newest characteristic directed by profitable Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio – finest often known as the director of the acclaimed movies Gloria (and its remake Gloria Bell), A Incredible Lady, Disobedience, and The Surprise beforehand. The screenplay is written in collaboration that includes: Josefina Fernández, Manuela Infante, Paloma Salas, and director Sebastián Lelio. This evocative, eye-opening film is a full-on musical with arresting Broadway-esque track and dance numbers – large performances the place the younger forged of a whole lot dances throughout the college. It is this 12 months’s I’ve-never-seen-a-musical-that-does-this-before. I’ve observed (usually at movie festivals) that too many individuals who don’t like actually like musicals attempt to watch musicals after which get upset that they are musical. Cease doing this! The Wave is an thrilling musical that tries to make use of track and dance to boost the story it is telling about this 2018 feminist motion in Chile. There are a number of songs about rape and sexual assault, accusations and the authorized course of, defying college guidelines and organizing protests, and what it is prefer to be a girl on this planet. It is not a straightforward matter to handle, however they go for it and so they completely ship – this hits onerous and shakes issues up in a captivating manner. Bravo, bravo!
The story follows actress / singer Daniela López as Julia, girl within the music division at a prestigious college in Santiago, Chile. After an evening with one other pupil goes flawed, she joins the protest motion talking out in opposition to rape & sexual assault, as a result of the varsity by no means actually does a lot each time it occurs. La Ola makes a intelligent resolution to make the core of the film be about actually and metaphorically discovering your voice. She is a singer and should study to search out her actual voice as a singer, however she’s additionally a younger girl who should discover her voice on this motion, studying to talk out as a feminist and in addition battle for actual change. Particularly as somebody caught up in an incident. The entire musical numbers and the entire choreography is superior – from the way in which a whole lot of scholars dance as a “wave”, to the extra intimate performances when the track about accusations kicks in. Maybe one other musical has carried out it earlier than, however I used to be in awe watching them dance out their protest, placing on masks and taking on the college whereas singing & cheering. This film will impress anybody who already is aware of & loves musicals, it is the type of show-stopping spectacular that might get Tony awards if it have been taking part in on Broadway. (And possibly it should present up there sooner or later quickly.)
Lelio truly does take a pause to handle the elephant within the room – at one level in the course of the large finale, the film actually stops mid track & breaks the fourth wall. “Why is that this film being directed by a white man?” they ask, because it’s purported to be all about girls taking cost and making the world higher and safer for ladies. Alas the movie rapidly strikes on after this beat, regardless of posing this intriguing query. What’s most refreshing is that the film would not even have the entire solutions. There is no such thing as a conclusion to all of what’s going on on this, it is not merely “properly that is what we have to do and that is it, we have carried out it!” The world is not actually higher but, sadly. However I’ll reiterate that it’s vitally necessary & terribly empowering that this film even exists in any respect. These protests in 2018 (and all over the world) occurred, and even when they did not precisely change the whole lot, this film captures them for the sake of historical past. It is going to all the time be identified that these badass younger girls walked out, took main dangers, courageously challenged the system, and fought again – and that is wonderful. And it’s simply as wonderful that they have been capable of translate this story into such a inventive, revolutionary, awe-inspiring musical utilizing the facility of cinema to immortalize these courageous girls.
Alex’s Cannes 2025 Ranking: 8.5 out of 10
Observe Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
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