Official Competition

Mailin

2025 /
87 min /
Argentina
France
Romania
Spanish premiere

While telling her daughter a bedtime story, Mailin pieces together her memories. What could have been a fairy tale turns out to be the story of a girl who suffered abuse by a priest for fifteen years. It is a long journey toward healing and justice, but also an opportunity to give her daughter the childhood she never had.

After winning the Pardino d’Oro for Best Short Film at Locarno in 2021 with Criatura, and premiering the short film The Spiral at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes 2022, María Silvia Esteve returns with a powerful story filmed over eight years that, through archival footage, home movies, and spectral animations, immerses us in the memories of an abuse that slowly emerge and endure.

Theme:

DramaHuman rightsReligionSexualitySocialViolenceWomen

María Silvia Esteve

Argentinian director and producer. Her first feature-length documentary, SILVIA, premiered at IDFA in 2018. In 2021, her film CRIATURA won the Pardino d’Oro at the Locarno Festival and was selected for over one hundred festivals, including Sitges, Fantasia, MIFF, and El Gouna. In 2022, her short film THE SPIRAL was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her project MAILIN received major post-production awards at Visions du Réel, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, and the Guadalajara Film Festival, and had its world premiere in the International Competition at IDFA 2025. Between 2024 and 2025, her immersive video installation CORTEX was exhibited at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris. As a Berlinale 2025 Talent, Silvia is currently developing FAUCES.

Schedules

+ Q&A

Thursday

14/05

20:45 h

Buy tickets

Renoir | Sala 5

Saturday

16/05

20:45 h

Buy tickets

Renoir | Sala 6

Credits

Director
María Silvia Esteve
Scenario
María Silvia Esteve
Editor
Maria Silvia Esteve
Sales agent
Théo Lionel / The Party Film Sales
Distributor
Ramón Rey / Lost & Found Films
Production company
María Silvia Esteve / Hana Films
Production company
Alejandra López / Ikki Films
Production company
Radu Stancu / deFilm

Technical sheet

Year:

2025

Duration:

87 min

Country:

Argentina
France
Romania

Language:

Spanish

Subtitles:

English

Awards and festivals

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2025

Göteborg Film Festival 2026

Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival 2026

Poster

Don't miss

Awards