Costa Rican Hilda Hidalgo, best known for her acclaimed adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Love and Other Demons and the drama Violeta at Last, returns to fiction filmmaking with Cousins (Plymouth), reuniting with Violeta at Last producer Emi Komichi and Costa Rican variety show director Nicholas Wong. Below-the-line talent to track last year and art director Olga Madrigal.
Taking a page from past documentaries, Hidalgo gives “Cousins” a hybrid treatment, with the young leads pointing the camera at themselves in some scenes.
Hidalgo’s third fiction film, this coming-of-age drama follows two 12-year-old girls who are forced to flee their homes after a traumatic incident. Trapped in a spiral of escape, collusion, and feverish visions, they use cell phone cameras to uncover the truth, confront the unspeakable, and find a way to make their voices heard.
“Every film needs its own language. With ‘Cousins,’ even though it’s a scripted fiction film, I want to inject it with the spirit of a documentary. Even though it’s scripted, I’m interested in maintaining the sense of unpredictability, intimacy, and discovery that documentary filmmaking allows for,” Hidalgo told Variety.
“Film, by its very nature, is a collective art form. We believe that films are strongest when they are made by a whole team. But actors often work within a structure that is already fully defined. For this project, we wanted to take that collaboration even further by inviting young actresses to co-author the film itself. They use their phones to film parts of the story, creating images that are as much their own as the film.”
She used a similar approach in Two Homelands, a documentary about Cuba, which she graduated from the prestigious International Film and Television School (EICTV) with a degree in directing. “Filming there was extremely difficult, so we sent the women at the center of the film high-quality mobile phones and asked them to record moments in their daily lives. Their footage brought an authenticity and emotional immediacy that could not have been captured with an external camera.”
“With Cousins, we are exploring a similar approach, albeit in a completely different context. Although this is not a documentary about the actresses’ own lives, we want the actresses to be our collaborators in the making of the film. As they develop real friendships and share experiences, we are exploring a similar approach. They will then continue to film from within the action during the staged fictional scenes. In this way, their footage becomes an important part of the film, capturing moments and perspectives that only they have access to. ”
“This film is also about the awakening of desire, and discovering one’s own sexuality at an age when those feelings begin to emerge. That’s what makes it so paradoxical: a time when desire is still fragile and full of wonder, but also marked by violence and abuse. These two realities are painfully intertwined,” she continued, adding that she feels Costa Rica is “living a pandemic of sexual violence.”
“It’s impossible to ignore. I can hardly think of a family member, including my own relatives, friends and acquaintances, who hasn’t been abused in some way. This is a reality that feels so deeply present that I couldn’t help but explore it.”
“But I wanted to tell this story without losing the perspective of the girls. This film is not defined by the violence inflicted on them, but by how they experience it, how they make sense of it, and the agency, resilience, and rebellion they discover within themselves.”
She is holding off on casting until she secures additional funding and co-producing partners. The girls are likely to be unknowns and may be selected from Costa Rica’s growing number of film and acting schools.
“When working with children, I think it’s essential to have a budget in place before casting. Otherwise, the process can drag on for months or even years. As the girls grow up, you risk creating expectations that may never be met. It’s always preferable to secure funding before casting a film, but in this case it’s absolutely essential.”
“For Costa Rican films, international co-productions are essential. It is possible to make films with local financing alone, but it is an uphill battle and inevitably limits the distribution of films. Our domestic market is simply too small. Co-productions not only make it easier to obtain financing, but also create opportunities for films to travel and reach a wider audience, building a stronger international film,” Hidalgo said. life. ”
In fact, her well-received adaptation of the novel by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, Love and Other Demons, was the first co-production between Costa Rica and Colombia. “Violeta at Last” was a co-production with Mexico.
