Renowned Costa Rican actor, playwright, and poet Ana Istaru will co-star in her daughter Ardelia Istaru’s next directorial film, Quemada. Valentina Morel’s production company Tres Tigres will produce in collaboration with France’s Geco Films, Belgium’s Wrong Men and Panama’s Mansa Productura. This project is part of the Desde el Centro showcase at the Costa Rica Media Market in San Jose on July 14th and 15th.
“Quemada” is a hybrid documentary that explores the “legacy of shame” by blurring the lines between objective documentary record, performative reconstruction, and abstract artistic expression. The film is based on the director’s personal experiences. After intimate photos were distributed without her consent when she was 15 years old, Istaru published her testimony online and gained national media attention. Years later, she returns home and confronts this story with her mother, the sensual poet Anna.
“Right after my testimony spread online, I left Costa Rica because of the pressure that came with it,” Istaru told Variety when asked about the origins of the project. “Revisiting this story felt like a way to better understand the rift between me and my country. I didn’t think that adapting this story to film would necessarily heal that rift, but I was hopeful that I might be able to return to it with a new sense of dignity. I also wanted answers, and I wanted them to come directly from the people who shared my intimate photos in the first place.”
The director said she was interested in using her experience to “discuss sexuality with my mother, and to make her confront the contradictions of being a feminist raising a daughter whose experiences resist conventional ideas of victimhood.”
Director Istaru said that after Anna arrived in Europe in 1982, working with her mother felt like a “natural continuation” of her first short film, Pluevas. “The trust we built during the making of that film has now created the conditions for an even deeper collaboration. That’s why, when I first proposed this project to her, she too saw it as a necessary exercise for both of us. ‘Quemada’ explores the legacy passed down from mother to daughter: shame, fear, and the contradictions surrounding female desire.” ”
Provided courtesy of Ardelia Istar
The filmmaker also stressed that he didn’t want to make a film that was “just about the issue of school bullying.” “I was more interested in looking at the dynamics between victims and their perpetrators, and the disturbing way that reconciliation can sometimes feel like the most comforting outcome. We tend to seek justice from those who have harmed us, as if only they can free us from the guilt of resisting them in the first place.”
“I want to free myself from that guilt, and if I can do it in a way that frees others from that guilt too, even better,” she added. “Sometimes I intentionally expose myself to the judgment of the audience to give them an opportunity and even question my decisions. Why give these young people a chance at redemption in a film that depicts the consequences of their actions?”
Asked about working with acclaimed Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel, whose film Mother Animals won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Un Certain Regard, Istaru said Maurel’s Tres Tigres banner “provides an important platform for Quemada and helps a film with such a complex theme reach a diverse audience.”
“Given the recent growth of Costa Rican cinema, frequenting and working with Class A film festivals is a natural way to capitalize on that momentum,” she added.
Geko Films’ Gregoire Debailly says he was drawn to “Quemada” for “the playful and inventive way in which she recalls a painful experience and turns it into a vibrant exploration of memory, intimacy, and the surprising ways in which women across generations connect and shape each other.”
“Long-time partners Geko and Wrong Men are thrilled to be reunited with Quemada. Ardelia Istaru’s script surprised us with its strength and originality. Poetic, sensitive and incisive, we present a remarkable first feature documentary,” added Wrong Men’s Maeva Nicol.
“Quemada” recently secured Ibermedia Co-Production Fund. He has previously received development support from Ibermedia and the El Fauno Foundation and participated in the Ibermedia Workshop for Film Projects in Central America and the Caribbean.
