So Much Tenderness

With director Lina Rodriguez and producer Brad Deane in person 

Dir. Lina Rodriguez. 2022, 118 mins. In English and Spanish with English subtitles. With Noëlle Schönwald, Juan Pablo Cruz, Natalia Aranguren, Francisco Zaldua, Deragh Campbell, Kazik Radwanski, Brad Deane. Having fled Colombia after her husband was murdered, Aurora (Schönwald), an environmental lawyer, illegally crosses the northern U.S. border to restart and settle in Canada as a refugee. Six years later, she leads a seemingly normal life in Toronto with her tempestuous daughter Lucía (Aranguren), until her estranged cousin Edgar (Zaldua), who was a suspect in her husband’s murder, resurfaces, threatening everything she’s built. The latest from Canadian multi-hyphenate artist Lina Rodriguez is a sharply calibrated story of dislocation and exile, centered on an émigré whose hard-fought sense of belonging and empowerment is made tenuous thanks to forces from both the political past and cultural present. Rodriquez’s adeptness in both narrative and documentary storytelling comes through in this unforgettable drama, rich in both uncanny details of immigrant lives and the director’s own distinctive sense of humor and timing.  

Preceded by: ‘

Self-portrait No. 1 (dir. Lina Rodriguez. 2018, 3 mins), a portrait of the artist through song and domestic interiority.

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.