Central American Film Festival a Hit in Costa Rica

It’s not too late to enjoy the third annual Costa Rican Central American Film Festival, which started Oct. 12 and will continue through Oct. 26. Every day during these two weeks, a film is shown at 6pm in the Cine Variedades near the Parque Central in San Jose, free of charge.

The goal of the Festival is to highlight the wealth of talent throughout the region that is usually overshadowed by big-budget Hollywood films.

This year Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are represented. The Embassies and/or Consulates of these countries worked together to make the event possible and each was responsible for choosing the film that would represent their particular country.

The festival opened with the showing of the Costa Rican film Marasmo, directed by Costa Rican Mauricio Mendiola, which documents the experiences of Colombian guerrilla soldiers.

This Sunday I was able to attend the Chilean film “Padre Nuestro,” a dark comedy about the last day of a dying man’s life and his attempt to bring his not-so-perfect family back together.

The audience, which filled the 540-seat theater, seemed to enjoy the movie, and many departed the theater with tears in their eyes – a contradictory, although not unexpected, ending to a movie that had the whole theater laughing throughout.

The festival gives viewers the opportunity to see a variety of thoughtful, quality films that are not well known in the commercial world of movies. The themes represented are derived from Latin American culture and history and are very colorful and refreshing in their distinctiveness.

The full list of films that were shown or will be shown is:

Costa Rica /October 12
Marasmo

Bolivia/October 13
American Visa

Dominican Republic/October 14
Nueva Yol 3

Brazil/October 15
El año que mis padres salieron de vacaciones

Argentina/October 16
No sos vos, soy yo

Colombia/October 17
Crónica de una muerte anunciada

Panama/October 18
Detrás del muro

Paraguay/October 19
Los paraguayos

Cuba/October 20
El Benny

Chile/October 21
Padre Nuestro

Ecuador/October 22
1809-1810 Mientras llega el dia