Four years after Ariel Escalante’s Domingo and the Fog premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, Costa Rica’s thriving label Incendio Cine continues to ink important co-production deals in the Central American country.
Panama’s Expansive Cine and Peru’s Cine Infinito have joined “We Won’t Let the Goat Die,” the solo directorial debut of Felipe Zuniga, which won the grand prize at this year’s Fantastic Lab Central America and the Caribbean, and veteran producer Santiago Duran.
“We Won’t Let the Goat Die” depicts 10-year-old Bernardo, who becomes obsessed with watching over his mother after the sudden death of his father. As a widow battles depression, her son secretly rescues and cares for an injured goat deep in the rainforest. When an ocelot begins wandering the neighborhood and a mysterious green light appears in the sky, Bernardo is forced to confront the harsh and uncontrollable nature of growing up.
“This film started with a feeling that stayed with me throughout my childhood, a childhood where I had to take care of adults,” the director told Variety ahead of the film’s screening at the upcoming Costa Rica Media Market. “I grew up in a household where you never knew what was going to happen. My mother went through a very serious mental crisis, and my father struggled with alcohol. I was always on guard for noises, mood changes, and any signs that something might get out of control. For a long time, I believed it was my responsibility to keep the family together.”
However, the director emphasizes that the film is not a “reconstruction” of his childhood, but that he and the protagonist “share a way of seeing the world.” “We know the fear of losing our home and the improbability of having to protect those who protect us. ‘Don’t Let the Goats Die’ is not an autobiographical film, but it is made from the emotional material of my childhood: fear, kindness, imagination, and the idea that perhaps loving and caring for someone might be enough to keep them safe.”
“La Llorona” cinematographer Nicholas Wong, a former variety talent to track, co-produced the film with Zuniga through Incendio Cine. The producer states that the success he and the director found through the production label was the result of them “exactly what we wanted to do as producers.” In this sense, co-production is a “key” element in their international expansion.
“But just as important for us is to develop author projects that make the most of regional and budgetary constraints with passion and efficiency, and we hope that this also translates to the international stage,” he added.
Zuniga echoes that sentiment, saying, “Co-production remains one of the best ways to get a project off the ground.” “Our partners in Panama and Peru are reliable collaborators. Isabela Gálvez and Jimena Hospina are two producers whose work we greatly respect and we have worked with on previous projects, so we couldn’t be happier with the partnership we have built,” he added, adding that Incendio is also currently in final negotiations with Clara Films, led by Chilean Clara Larrain, to join as new co-producers.
Zuniga recently co-directed “No One Knows We Play Today” with Valentina Morell, whose “Forever Your Mother Animal” received critical acclaim and won an award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Regarding the momentum in Costa Rican cinema, the director says, “In recent years we have seen the emergence of films with very different opinions and approaches, many led by female directors with bold, sharp, and very personal perspectives.”
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be part of that process as an assistant director, particularly working with Nathalie Álvarez Mesén on ‘Clara Sola,’ Sofia Quiroz on ‘Land of Ashes,’ and Valentina Morel on ‘I Have Electric Dreams’ and ‘Eternal Mother Animal,'” he says.
He added: “After working on more than 20 Costa Rican films, I have seen how our films have expanded the way the country is represented. There is no one way to make Costa Rican films, and I believe that diversity is one of our greatest strengths. These films are finding their own language, their own relationship to the territory, and an international presence that seemed much more difficult to achieve a few years ago.”
Despite the recent success of national cinema, Zuniga cautioned that its growth “comes with great vulnerabilities.” “We still operate within small and precarious funding structures. Very often, any film has to reinvent the conditions that allow it to survive. The challenge now is to translate international recognition into continuity, resources and better working conditions for those who make films at home.”
