Sofía has just finished her psychology studies in Valparaíso, Chile, and returns to her hometown, Valdivia. This return coincides with the discovery of a young girl's body, which awakens buried memories of childhood in Sofía. She must decide whether to look beyond the rain and its veil to uncover a past that is painful and uncomfortable not only for herself but also for her whole community.

Director Valeria Sarmiento's new film Behind the Rain world premiered in the Crystal Globe main competition of the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Mixing beautiful black-and-white landscape images with the difficult subject matter of childhood sexual abuse, the movie is based on an original idea from Sarmiento and a screenplay that she worked on with the late Omar Saavedra Santis​. The director of photography is Acácio de Almeida; the editor is Galut Alarcón.

The cast features Paula Prado, Cristián Arriagada, Aline Kuppenheim, Shlomit Baytelman, Chamila Rodríguez, Daniel Muñoz, Julio Milostich, Aimar Alarcón Rodríguez and Clara Vargas Arellano. Rodríguez is also the producer of the movie.

Sarmiento and Rodríguez, who have been collaborators since Secrets (2008), talked to THR, via an interpreter, about Behind the Rain and their hopes for the societal debate it could cause.

What inspired this story and led you to make a film about a very important, and also very heavy, topic?

Valeria Sarmiento The initial inspiration was that in our society, child abuse is sadly really common. And oftentimes, we are silent about it.

 Behind the Rain,' courtesy of KVIFF

You worked on the screenplay with Omar Saavedra Santis​. Was that his final film project, and how did he come on board?



Sarmiento Initially, I wanted to work on the film with my French and Swiss friends, but we did not really make any progress. When I met with Chamila, she suggested to go back to where it all started, which meant Chile. And that's when I contacted Omar, who then he joined the team and developed my initial idea further.

Chamila, why did you want to work on this film - both as an actress and producer

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