Laura Baumeister made a major mark at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival. Not only did the filmmaker win the €20,000 (about $21,800 USD) EFADs-CAACI Europe-Latin America Co-Production Grant, she is set to make history. As she told Cineuropa, her winning project, “Daughter of Rage,” will be the first Nicaraguan narrative feature from a female director.

“Nicaragua has no film industry, no film schools,” she explained to the source. “There are a handful of Nicaraguan fiction films, but this will be the first one to be directed by a woman.”

“Daughter of Rage” will mark Baumeister’s feature directorial debut. Inspired by the children she met while working as a teacher in Nicaragua, it follows María, a girl who lives next to a garbage dump in Managua. “After accidentally poisoning the puppies her mother was rearing to sell, she is taken to a recycling plant to learn the ropes, but after weeks have passed and her mother has not come back for her, María sets off to track her down,” Baumeister synopsized. “What she doesn’t know is that a wave of violent protests is unfurling in the city, and her quest will soon lead her into danger.”

Baumeister used to teach children living in La Chureca, “the biggest rubbish dump in Nicaragua.” “As I got to know these children, I was struck by the conditions they lived in, but they blew my mind because they were just like any other children,” she recalled. “They were imaginative, they had dreams, they would tell you all kinds of jokes, go on treasure hunts … all the things that any child does.” Baumeister added, “It immediately hit me how resilient the imagination is, and how you can draw strength from creating your own world.”

Production on “Daughter of Rage” is planned to begin in April. The pic will be co-produced by Nicaragua and Mexico as well as the Netherlands, Germany, and France.

Baumeister previously wrote and directed shorts “Ombligo de Agua,” “Isabel Im Winter,” and “Lagunas.” “Isabel Im Winter” screened at Cannes 2016 and “Ombligo de agua” at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.