The Costa Rican production company Café Cinema completed the filming of its first feature film in English called Paradise Falls: a Christmas Story. It is a Christmas movie that – according to its makers – promises to bring the magic of Costa Rica to movie screens around the world.
Its premiere is scheduled for October at key promotional events for the industry such as ShowEast 2024 in Miami and the American Film Market in Las Vegas. This with the aim of ensuring its distribution in movie theaters starting in December of this year.
“Paradise Falls: A Christmas Story” features an international cast, including Mexican-American actress Victoria Ulmos and American actor Linwood Yarborough. They are accompanied by Costa Ricans Byron Ortega and Michelle de Matheu.
Movie details: the plot
Héctor Alfaro Dobles, Costa Rican producer in charge of the feature film, said: “we are proud to bring this story to the world. “With this we will show not only our technical and creative capacity, but also the beauty of Costa Rica and the quality of our local talent,” he said.
Filmed in Ciudad Colón last August, this film shows the natural wealth of the area, including its canyon and a beautiful waterfall. The film’s story follows Lucy, a Christmas-loving young New Yorker. She travels to Costa Rica to surprise her grandfather.Here he embarks on a mission to bring back the Christmas festivities to a small Costa Rican town known as Paradise Falls.
In addition to its cinematographic appeal, the film has been an engine of development for the local economy and benefiting local businessmen and entrepreneurs from various sectors. Among them gastronomic, hotel, transportation and costume design and construction of sets.
National and international talent
The Costa Rica Film Commission and the Foreign Trade Promoter (Procomer) have witnessed the growth of this project. “This feature film is a sample of the potential and capacity of national talent for the production of film projects on a global scale.
“In our country we have six film zones with which we can attract investments of this type that, finally, will be transformed into a cultural export product. “It is through projects like this that we will be able to position Costa Rica as a key destination for large film productions in the future,” added Marysela Zamora Villalobos, Film Commissioner of Procomer.
The film was written by the Mexican Fernando Luján, directed by Manu Canales and photographed by the Argentine Ezequiel “Zeke” García, accompanied by an experienced group of Costa Rican talents in charge of the production staff.
The latter directed and supervised by national producer Héctor Alfaro Dobles, who presented the production proposal at the European Film Market of theBerlinale Festival in Germany. Also at the Marche du Film at the Cannes Festival in France, where he obtained financing for this production.
