Costa Rica Films

A retired writer who has just lost his wife goes on a retreat where his story begins to intertwine with that of Andrew, a shy young man confronting the awakening of his darkest thoughts.

A private detective faces his wounds and secrets from the past as he tries to clarify the strange circumstances surrounding his daughter’s accident.

Luisa, 40, meets Yuliana, a 17-year-old with an unwanted pregnancy who is attempting to get an abortion. Scared, Luisa takes her to a gynecologist, who informs them that it’s too late in the pregnancy to terminate. Moved by her situation, Luisa takes Yuliana in, discovering her own inner conflict through the girl’s dilemma.

After Dr. Olman escapes from prison, the paths of two brave masked women cross as they take justice into their own hands to try to capture him. However, they must confront their own fears and desires for revenge.

Chalo, a security guard, dreams of owning his first fighting rooster. Once he achieves his goal, a series of unexpected events unfold, testing his hopes and the strength of friendship.

“Güilas” is a film born from the short “Amor de Temporada.” It’s made up of a series of adventures and mischief by children—those spontaneous, authentic, and restless little humans who follow their innocent impulses without fear. These impulses lead them into unexpected and funny situations, to build dreams, face disappointments, experience small great losses, and achieve great small victories.

Clara, a 40-year-old woman, is believed to have a special connection with God. As a “healer,” she supports her family and a town in need of hope while finding solace in her bond with nature. After years of being controlled by her repressive mother, Clara’s sexuality awakens when she becomes attracted to her niece’s new boyfriend. This newfound force leads her into unexplored territory, allowing her to cross both physical and mystical boundaries. Empowered by self-discovery, Clara gradually frees herself from her role as a “saint” and begins to heal herself.

Six episodes of approximately twelve minutes each narrate the challenges faced by the pioneers who developed and promoted the strong contemporary dance movement that exists in Costa Rica today and is recognized worldwide. With extensive archival footage—much of it never before seen—and the voices of living protagonists, the series highlights the obstacles they had to overcome. This project has two main purposes: to preserve the cultural memory of dance in Costa Rica and to promote the work of national dance companies and performers, both from the public and independent sectors.

Masha, an 11-year-old girl, suddenly moves with her mother Elisa to her grandmother Dinia’s house, who is beginning to lose her memory. The coexistence among these three women triggers a delusion around the presence of a man inside the house whom no one else sees.

Victor, a hermit, desperately searches for a cow that has disappeared from his small ranch. He suspects an Indigenous neighbor with whom he has had previous conflicts. The arrival of Ricardo, his 12-year-old grandson, awakens childhood traumas that blur with present fears. Protecting his grandson from the supposed threat becomes a fatal obsession, forcing Victor to confront the ghost of his past.

Every afternoon, a strange fog covers Domingo’s ranch and brings with it a special visitor: the ghost of Marília, his late wife. When his land is set to be expropriated for a new highway, his worst fear becomes reality: losing his property means losing contact with his wife’s spirit. Desperate, Domingo starts setting fires to sabotage the construction, but his plan begins to spiral out of control.

This feature documentary embarks on a journey through Nicaragua, delving into the intimacy, poetry, and humanity of Ernesto Cardenal.

A young athlete faces a series of vicissitudes between the love of two classmates that will change his way of seeing the world.

Born in the Chinese community of Costa Rica, filmmaker Nicole Chi Amén was never able to communicate with her grandmother Guián, who did not speak Spanish. After her death, Nicole travels to China to rediscover her roots.

Leonel wakes up from a 19-year coma and realizes the only person left to care for him is his granddaughter Patricia.

Lara, a contemporary dancer unsure of her talent but driven by her passion, faces a dilemma when she’s offered a scholarship to join a dance company in Berlin. The dream she’s worked toward becomes an inner conflict as she realizes that following her passion means leaving behind the people and places that make her country home.

Against Eva’s wishes, her mother wants to remodel the house and get rid of the cat, which, disoriented since the divorce, urinates everywhere. Eva wants to live with her father, who, like the cat, is lost in a second adolescence.

This film follows the fate of several characters trapped in a Kafkaesque situation—waiting endlessly in line at the Costa Rican Immigration Department. Men and women from all walks of life coexist unwillingly in this bureaucratic microcosm, where time and process seem eternal, and their futures hang in the balance.

In the Martínez family, everything was perfect—or almost perfect—until tragedy struck unexpectedly with a serious accident.

Composed of twelve episodes lasting between four and eight minutes, the series explores the stories behind words like “mae,” “¡upe!,” “pargo,” and even “polo”, as well as expressions such as “amarrar el perro” or the Costa Rican habit of adding the famous diminutives “tico” or “illo” to words. More than just a history of Costa Rican slang, the series also humorously reflects on the country’s national idiosyncrasy—its virtues as well as its few forgivable flaws.

Costa Rica’s first participation in a FIFA World Cup turned into a historic triumph for the country. The national team was a true revelation in Italy 1990—a turning point in the professionalization of Costa Rican soccer. Hope, fear, and euphoria converge in this intense cinematic retelling.

Rosmeri is the last inhabitant of a ghost town evacuated due to constant volcanic eruptions in Costa Rica. She has built a new life caring for the abandoned animals and running her café. Her family and authorities pressure her to leave, but she refuses. Rosmeri says the volcano is her friend and will keep her safe, that bond gives her the strength to stay.

Selva, a 13-year-old girl, lives in a coastal Caribbean town. While growing up, she tries to hold her family together, but this becomes increasingly difficult. Her father seems gone for good, Elena—her only maternal figure—disappears at a village party, and her grandfather, delirious with visions of nonexistent goats, begins to fade away. Amid imaginary landscapes and mysterious shadows, Selva must decide whether to help her grandfather fulfill his final wish, even if it means facing the end of her own childhood alone.

Ana Casasola, a journalist in Costa Rica, investigates the terrorist attack in which her father died forty years ago. The identification of a possible witness takes her on a journey to the site where the events occurred, in the river near the border with Nicaragua. There, Ana recognizes in that mysterious man something more familiar and intimate than just a witness.

After realizing that his lack of education is affecting his life, Maikol Yordan decides to return to finish high school. At school he finds that many things have changed with today’s youth, and he embarks on a very fun adventure in the scholastic world and in the imagination of this beloved character.

A boy from Pérez Zeledón, Costa Rica, finds in soccer both his passion and a path to a better life. As he strives toward his athletic and professional goals—and to help his family—he faces an unknown city and challenges that will test his character but ultimately reveal the true strength behind his dreams.

Three immigrants work at the superheroes’ headquarters. One of them, María, discovers that the superheroes actually intend to destroy our planet—and together, they will do everything possible to stop them.

“Medea” tells the story of María José, a 25-year-old rugby player living with her parents in their comfortable upper-middle-class home. She leads an intense life, explores her sexuality without much restraint, and constantly tests boundaries—her own and others’. María José is in an advanced stage of pregnancy but is in denial, and no one knows it.

Growing up in a repressive time when sexuality was a taboo subject, Ana (68), Patricia (69), and Mayela (71) developed their understanding of what it means to be a woman based on tacit norms and implicit expectations. Now they dare to speak openly about it. Their memories, secrets, and longings poetically intertwine: while the women tell their stories off-screen, they fill the body of another woman of their generation who embodies their lives.

A mixed children’s soccer team wants to win a championship to save the neighborhood orphanage. That’s when the legendary Morgan comes to the rescue—but he’ll need to fine-tune a lot of details if he wants to succeed.

Nosotras is a five-part documentary series, each episode lasting 30 minutes. It’s a series of self-portraits that, with beautiful simplicity, portrays the complexities we experience as women throughout life. What one of us lives through, affects us all.

Juan, a man from the city, leaves his farm and goes down to the village in search of Ignacia, the wife of his farm caretaker. The village becomes a labyrinth: he cannot find Ignacia — does she even exist? Juan unleashes the monster within. To escape, Juan must face the village, its people, and thus his possibility of change.

Tatiana, a journalist tormented by disappointment and routine, embarks on a journey across Costa Rica to rediscover the true meaning of inner peace and self-love.

When a magical moon slips into the twilight, time becomes intertwined in the mysterious and static town of Manzanillo.

After humanity fails to divert an asteroid heading toward Earth, it is decided to evacuate the entire population of the planet. Humans will board migratory ships bound for Nova, a new habitable planet.

Victoria, Susana, and Marcela are three friends facing the shared crisis of turning forty. Together they decide to go on a trip to a meditation retreat to reconnect with themselves and try to start their path to happiness.

The film follows the story of Victoria, a young woman passionate about dance who, after a five-year relationship, breaks up with her boyfriend and her old life to enter the harsh prison system. Through a series of experiences, Victoria discovers a reality that transcends social conventions, making her question her own limits and the meaning of freedom.

The ancient inhabitants of southern Costa Rica carved more than 300 stone spheres, most of which were looted. Ifigenia, an archaeologist, bears the weight of these secrets in a country eager to forget its history. What are the cracks in our memory? How do things fracture over time?

Exhausted by long hours of photo retouching work, multimedia artist and photographer Allegra Pacheco uses her savings to travel from New York to Tokyo. She is disturbed by the intensity of the city and the drive of those around her. Late at night, she notices suited men sleeping on sidewalks—“salarymen” who work endless hours and drink with their bosses, collapsing in the streets until it’s time to return to work.

San José de Noche consists of 13 episodes about different iconic locations that have been forgotten due to the false premise that San José is a small city that rests and goes to sleep early. Produced by Caramba Films, the series is supported by Fondo El Fauno from the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of San José.

Summer vacation. Two sisters, Marina (17) and Luna (14), travel from Costa Rica to Panama in search of their absent father. While dealing with friction that arises between them, they find space to explore their desires, new friendships, lovers, and skateboarding — on a journey toward emancipation in which they learn the virtue of simply hanging out.

It tells the story of Christian and Antonio, best friends since childhood. At 18, a lie separated their paths. Years later, life brings them face to face again.

Alejandra and Joaquín are a couple marked by his depression. His emotional instability has left him unemployed again, which has made the relationship even more complicated. Alejandra doesn’t understand why everything is so difficult for her husband, nor the reasons for his unhappiness, when it seems like he has everything.

Tricolín and his friends embark on an adventure through time and space via the mythical Costa Rican stone spheres. The young adventurer and his companions set out on a journey to learn about the Bicentennial of Costa Rica’s independence, leading them to unexpected places in the past and future, where they gain knowledge of events and eras while living fun and exciting experiences.

Isa, a seamstress living with her family in a small Costa Rican town, and her two daughters take great pride in their long, beautiful hair. They braid and brush it carefully, never cutting it. Alcides, Isa’s husband, wants a third child—a son. Isa, however, doesn’t want another pregnancy, she wants to focus on work and her daughters. When she realizes Alcides won’t listen and persists, Isa understands something must change.

Tony Martínez, a young man returning from reform school, dreams of reintegrating into his community through breakdancing. He avoids getting caught up with local gangs, but soon learns about a crashed drug plane in the nearby river—an event that implicated several neighbors. Together with his best friend Chayote, Tony must devise a plan to bring justice to the neighborhood and save their own lives.

At 72, Eugenio finds one last chance to win the trophy he never earned in soccer—by entering a tropical dance contest. When he loses his partner, his only option to win will be to face his own prejudices and those of his family.

Set right after the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua, an ex-guerrilla fighter named Paco Jarquín—known as “The Last Commander”—chooses to deny his glorious past and live anonymously as a dance teacher in neighboring Costa Rica, unlike his former comrades who embraced fame and politics.

Nella Barrantes decides to quit her job after being forced to see a psychiatrist. While deciding what to do, she’s chosen to play the Virgin Mary in a small-town religious procession, where something within her changes profoundly as she looks into the eyes of the people praying to her. That day, Nella discovers her vocation. Back in the city, she devotes herself to helping the poor while clinging to the fragile shell of her sanity.

The Psychopath: Chronicle of an Unsolved Case tells the story of Costa Rica’s first recorded serial killer. Known as “El Psicópata,” he left nineteen victims between 1985 and 1995. The documentary examines the case from a criminological perspective and analyzes the sociopolitical environment that contributed to the case remaining unsolved and etched into the Costa Rican collective imagination.

Natalia and Daniel, a young professional couple, are going to have their first child and face a series of paranormal events.

Camila is fifteen years old and is going through the worst moment of her life: her mother is in a coma and she is forced to live with her father, whom she hates. In Diego, her first love, she tries to find refuge, but everything about him is chaotic and strange. The Skin of Water is the point of maximum tension of a liquid before it overflows.

Juan, a 30-something actor who doubts his talent, reunites with his best friend “El Tigre,” who returns to Costa Rica after achieving success abroad and plans to marry his German fiancée, Ada, on an exotic southern beach. On their way to the wedding, Juan—with the help of Rigo, their childhood friend—gets an unexpected chance to finally win over his longtime crush, Camila.

There exists a myth that Costa Rica’s population is mostly white. Through a train journey, this documentary explores the country’s migrant communities—Nicaraguan, Afro-descendant, and Indigenous—revealing how their histories have been marginalized and forgotten, and how they shape the nation’s true identity.

In a last attempt to save their four-year relationship, Diego and Sofía embark on a trip to Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, hoping to heal old wounds and reconnect. But a chance encounter with an old friend triggers a week full of shocking revelations, forcing them to reevaluate their past and reconsider their future.

Tremendas Leyendas plunges us into the adventures of three brave children who face the most fearsome ghosts, led by their grandmother—the Witch of Zárate.

“Dos Fridas” is inspired by the relationship between Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and her Costa Rican nurse Judith Ferreto, who cared for Frida during the last years of her life. In Judith’s memories, Frida is tended by her in the Blue House in Mexico. As a mirror, Judith is cared for by another woman in Costa Rica. In her inner world, dreams, myths, imagination, and reality intertwine.

Violeta, 72, recently divorced, lives alone in her childhood home, where she tends a lush garden and dreams of turning the house into a guest lodge. When she discovers the bank is about to repossess the property, she’s willing to break all the rules to keep her home and her independence.