Costa Rican cinema is celebrating, the national film Clara Sola won five statuettes at the Guldbagge Awards, the highest award given by the Swedish Film Institute, also considered as the Oscars of that country.
“We are very grateful and very excited that the work that was done for this film is recognized, it is something very valuable. The films are collective works and having this opportunity to recognize the work of so many people involved is very exciting for us”, commented one of the producers of the film, Karina Avellán. The awards were given in the categories Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
This is the first feature film by Costa Rican filmmaker Nathalie Álvarez and its premiere was held at the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
For this contest, the film headed the list with nine nominations, of which it managed to win five. The 57th ceremony of these awards took place this Monday, January 24th, at the Cirkus Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
Very excited
The director, Nathalie Álvarez receives one of the awards of the night. “We are very excited that in a country like Sweden, with a highly developed and talented industry, a Costa Rican film is seen and that they receive these awards. That a national film is winning these awards of course opens the space for other national films and also speaks of the great national talent that exists in the country and that what it needs is like the support of the country and the institutions to continue growing”, Avellán explained.
The film is about Clara (played by Wendy Chinchilla), a withdrawn 40-year-old woman who experiences a sexual awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions that have dominated her life.
If you want to see the film, you still have time, as it remains on the billboard at the Cine Magaly. The film was shot entirely in Costa Rica, in the towns of Vara Blanca de Heredia and Poasito de Alajuela between February and March 2020 and is a production that involved companies from five countries: Hobab (Sweden), Pacifica Gray (Costa Rica), Need Productions (Belgium), Resolve Media (USA) and Laidak Films (Germany).
