{"id":524254,"date":"2026-07-13T18:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:26:13","slug":"france-panama-join-tres-tigres-on-ardelia-istaru-quemada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/524254\/","title":{"rendered":"France, Panama Join Tres Tigres on Ard\u00e9lia Istar\u00fa ‘Quemada’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRenowned Costa Rican actor, playwright and poet Ana Istar\u00fa will appear alongside daughter Ard\u00e9lia Istar\u00fa<\/a> in the latter\u2019s next directorial outing, \u201cQuemada<\/a>.\u201d Valentina Maurel\u2019s production company Tres Tigres will produce alongside France\u2019s Geko Films, Belgium\u2019s Wrong Men and Panama\u2019s Mansa Productora. The project is part of the Desde el Centro showcase at the upcoming Costa Rica<\/a> Media Market, taking place in San Jose on July 14-15.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cQuemada\u201d is a hybrid documentary exploring the \u201clegacy of shame\u201d by blurring the lines between objective documentary recording, performative reconstruction and abstract artistic expression. The film stems from a personal experience lived by the director: After the non-consensual distribution of her intimate photos at age 15, Istar\u00fa published a testimonial online that became the subject of national media attention. Years later, she returns to the family home to confront this story with her mother, erotic poet Ana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShortly after my testimony spread online, and because of the pressure that came with it, I moved out of Costa Rica,\u201d Istar\u00fa told Variety when asked about the origins of the project. \u201cRevisiting the story felt like a way to better understand the fracture it had created between me and my country. I never believed that making a film about it would necessarily heal that fracture, but I hoped it might allow me to return to it with a renewed sense of dignity. I also wanted answers, and I wanted them to come directly from the people who had shared my intimate pictures in the first place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director said what interested her was using her experience \u201cto open a conversation with my mother about sexuality, and to confront her with the contradictions of being a feminist raising a daughter whose experience resists conventional ideas of victimhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIstar\u00fa noted that working with her mother felt like a \u201cnatural continuation\u201d of her first short film, \u201cPruebas,\u201d following Ana\u2019s arrival in Europe in 1982. \u201cThe trust we built while making that film created the conditions for a much deeper collaboration now. That\u2019s why, when I first proposed this project to her, she also saw it as a necessary exercise for both of us. \u2018Quemada\u2019 explores the inheritance passed from mothers to daughters: the shame, fears, and contradictions surrounding female desire.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Ard\u00e9lia Istar\u00fa<\/p>\n

\n\tThe filmmaker also emphasized she did not want to make a film \u201cthat stopped at the question of school bullying.\u201d \u201cI was more interested in looking at the power dynamics between the victim and their tormentor, and at the unsettling way reconciliation can sometimes feel like the most comforting outcome. There is a tendency to seek validation from those who have harmed us, as though they alone could release us from the guilt of having resisted them in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want to free myself from that guilt, and if I do it in a way that might also allow others to free themselves of it, even better,\u201d she added. \u201cAt times, I deliberately expose myself to the viewer\u2019s judgment, giving them the opportunity and even inviting them to question my decisions. Why give these young men the chance to redeem themselves in a film about the consequences of their own actions?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about working with lauded Costa Rican director Valentina Maurel, whose \u201cForever Your Maternal Animal\u201d won best actress for its ensemble at the Cannes Film Festival\u2019s Un Certain Regard, Istar\u00fa says Maurel\u2019s Tres Tigres banner \u201cprovides an important platform for \u2018Quemada,\u2019 helping a film with such complex themes reach diverse audiences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGiven how much Costa Rican cinema has grown lately, frequently reaching Class-A festivals and working alongside them is a natural way to plug into that momentum,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\n\tGeko Films\u2019s Gregoire Debailly says what drew him to \u201cQuemada\u201d is \u201cthe playful and inventive way she revisits a painful experience, turning it into a vibrant exploration of memory, intimacy, and the surprising ways women across generations connect and shape one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGeko and Wrong Men, partners for many years, are thrilled to reunite for \u2018Quemada.\u2019 Ardelia Istar\u00fa\u2019s script struck us with its power and ingenuity. Poetic, delicate and incisive, it announces a remarkable first feature documentary,\u201d added Wrong Men\u2019s Ma\u00ebva Nicol.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cQuemada\u201d has recently secured the Ibermedia Co-Production Fund. It previously received development support from Ibermedia and the El Fauno Fund and participated in the Ibermedia Workshop for Cinematic Projects from Central America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renowned Costa Rican actor, playwright and poet Ana Istar\u00fa will appear alongside daughter Ard\u00e9lia Istar\u00fa in the latter\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[259496,31717,259497,6332,156,409,111,139,69,259498],"class_list":["post-524254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ardu00e9lia-istaru00fa","tag-costa-rica","tag-costa-rica-media-market","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quemada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}