CLARA SOLA

In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara is regarded as a healer. Neighbours come to her to benefit from the grace her mother attributes to her – and that same mother has always kept her forty-year-old daughter like a child, controlling her body and forbidding her own desire. When her niece’s new boyfriend turns up at the house, something shifts. Clara begins to cross boundaries that were never negotiable for her, both physical and mystical. “Clara Sola”, the feature debut of Costa Rican-Swedish director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén from 2021, tells a story of awakening usually cast with adolescents, with a woman in the middle of her life instead.

The lead role is played by Wendy Chinchilla Araya, and the film thinks in movement: nature, animals, faith and desire interlock without the direction ever using magical realism as an effect. It premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2021; Costa Rica submitted the film for the Oscar race for Best International Feature. “Clara Sola” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2021 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.

Shown at the 2021 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2021 · Film Archive