“Clara Sola,” the debut feature from Swedish-Costa Rican director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, looks set for a French release.
Luxbox has sold the rights in France to Paris-based art-pic distribution outfit Epicentre Films. News of the deal comes the same day that the magical realist is premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Set in a remote Costa Rican village, “Clara Sola” centers around middle-aged Clara, played by debut actor and award-winning dancer Wendy Chinchilla. In the community, Clara is well-respected as a spiritual healer who brings hope to the rural population. Having been dominated for most of her life by an overbearing mother, she experiences a delayed sexual awakening after meeting her niece’s new boyfriend.
Mesen has described the film as being set in a “visceral world,” and hopes that it offers audiences a “window to a place where a subtle magic is inherent to nature if you know where to look.”
The director is a graduate of the prestigious Columbia University film school and has participated in various talent-rearing programs, including Berlinale Talents, TIFF Filmmaker Lab and NYFF Artist Academy. Her two short films “Filip” and “Asunder” won awards at international festivals, and she co-wrote “Entre Tú y Milagros,” winner of the Horizons Award for Best Short in the 2020 Venice Film Festival. She is currently developing her second feature, “The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands.”
Popular on Variety
“Clara Sola,” which won the CTT and El Taller awards at the Guadalajara Co-production Meeting in 2018, was produced by Swedish label Hobab, with Pacifica Grey, Need Productions, Laïdak Films and Resolve Media co-producing. Luxbox snagged the worldwide rights to the film earlier this year, as Variety exclusively reported. María Camila Arias (“Birds of Passage”) served as a co-writer on the film.
Luxbox outfit also has Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless” on its Cannes 2021 lineup.