Costa Rica has high hopes for Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s debut feature. The country has chosen “Clara Sola” to represent it in the International Feature Oscar category at the 2022 Academy Awards. A press release from Oscilloscope Laboratories, the film’s North American distributor, confirmed the news.
Set in a remote village in Costa Rica, “Clara Sola” tells the story of Clara, a 40-year-old healer who is believed to have a special relationship with god. A sexual and mystical awakening steer her away from convention and the control of her oppressive mother.
Álvarez Mesén told us that she and co-writer Maria Camila Arias were “interested in how patriarchal norms were inherited from generation to generation disguised as tradition, even in households where no men were present.”
The film made its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and is expected to hit North American theaters in early 2022.
Other women-directed offerings in the International Feature Oscar race include Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” representing France, and Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen, representing Mexico.
