Twice Oscar-nominated Chilean director Maite Alberdi is renowned for character-driven storytelling and her deeply personal and empathetic approach to documentary filmmaking.
Often drawn to the stories of older people, and those overlooked in society, Alberdi crafts intimate portraits of small worlds that speak about the politics of care and the human condition. She became the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Academy Award with The Mole Agent (2020), and received a second nomination in 2023 for The Eternal Memory.
Her latest feature, A Child of My Own, marks a subtle departure from her previous work. Its protagonist is younger, the film takes more of a hybrid form and the story unfolds in Mexico rather than Alberdi’s native Chile. Yet her trademark empathy remains, as she follows her subject with the same patience and emotional nuance that has defined her filmmaking career.
Ahead of the release of A Child of My Own at DocHouse, where we’re delighted to welcome Alberdi for a post-screening Q&A, we’re looking back at some of her previous works.
A Child of My Own / 2026 / 86 mins
After experiencing multiple miscarriages and the societal shame that comes with it, recently married Alejandra fakes a pregnancy. What starts as an elaborate lie turns into a complex charade that threatens to upend her life and relationship, and ultimately unleashes a media scandal that shakes the entire country.
A Child of My Own takes an empathetic and intriguing approach to Alejandra’s story, digging into the extraordinary societal pressure on young women in Mexico to become mothers.
Opens Friday 7 August at Bertha DocHouse. The screening on 7 August will be followed by a Q&A with Maite Alberdi. Book tickets here.
“Reality is so powerful, and it’s so full of stories and experiences that I really don’t need to write something because everything is already written”
Maite Alberdi, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter
The Eternal Memory / 2023 / 84 mins
Augusto Góngora, a veteran Chilean journalist and prominent chronicler of the crimes of the Pinochet regime, and Paulina Urrutia, actress, activist and politician, have been a tight-knit loving couple for over 20 years. Augusto was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s eight years ago, and now they both face the inexorable and accelerating descent of his physical and mental powers together.
At once heartbreaking and uplifting, the story of Paulina’s warm and uncompromising dedication and Augusto’s fierce fight to hold on to his identity is a deeply affecting testimony to their love. The Eternal Memory is both an inquiry into human dignity in old age and adversity, and into the mechanisms of individual and collective remembrance.
The Eternal Memory is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
The Mole Agent / 2020 / 84 mins
At 83 years old, widowed Sergio becomes a first-time spy, and the hero of Maite Alberdi’s charming Chilean caper. His mission is to infiltrate a retirement home where the client fears her mother is being mistreated. But once undercover, Sergio becomes distracted by something much more important to him than the task at hand, as he gets better acquainted with the home’s elderly residents.
This delightful doc begins as comical spy movie, but becomes a unique meditation on compassion and loneliness that will infiltrate your heart and never let go.
The Mole Agent is screening at the Lexi Cinema and is available to rent on various streaming platforms.
Tea Time / 2014 / 94 mins
Ritual is often associated with powerful and impersonal institutions, but for five Chilean women, ritual centers on a monthly gathering that has sustained them through 60 years of personal and societal change.
Tea Time is a charming and poignant look at how a seemingly mundane routine of tea and pastries has helped the well-heeled participants commemorate life’s joys and cope with infidelity, illness and death. Filmed over five years, Tea Time is a celebration of the small things that help us endure.