Daughter of Rage review: Laura Baumeister's debut digs out grit and resilience

Daughter of Rage opens on a huge dumpyard near Nicaragua, called La Chureca, as the camera pans out on the piles and piles of waste that have almost formed a mountain. The stunning shot establishes the gritty and somewhat formulaic terrain in Daughter of Rage, the Spanish-language film by Laura Baumeister, which marks the first narrative feature directed by a Nicaraguan woman. Premiering at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Daughter of Rage follows 11-year-old Maria, who lives with her steely mother Lilibeth in a makeshift shed near the dumpyard. And as Lilibeth, the brutish mother of Maria who suddenly disappears, Sevilla Garcia offers a quietly affecting turn, particularly in those drawn out visions in the film which are cleverly left understated. Baumeister's film could have easily slipped into melodramatic tendencies if not for the carefully orchestrated second half finding its way to that slow burn of a denouement.