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Costa Rica’s Dos de Patos has joined Páramo Films as co-producers of Luis Diego Pérez’s “The Beast Is Not to Blame,” which was recently awarded a film residency prize at the Desde El Centro showcase at the Costa Rica Media
Market. Panamá’s Expansiva Cine has also boarded the project as a co-developer.
“The Beast Is Not to Blame” is a queer coming-of-age following nine-year-old Iván, an introverted boy eagerly preparing for his First Communion. The moment is suddenly ruined when the boy’s best friend, with whom he secretly shared a bond that transcended friendship through magical moments in the Costa Rican forest, suddenly moves away. Unable to confide in others as to the nature of their relationship, Iván is forced to confront the pain of loss in silence.
Speaking with Variety following pitching the project at the Costa Rica Media Market, Pérez said the film has been “living in my head for years” through a need to “rediscover my childhood as a queer boy, to make sense of the gaps in my memory, and to give shape to experiences that have remained blurred over time.”
“I began writing from memories shaped by fear, doubt, and guilt, but also by joy, wonder, and the fascination of growing up as a Latino boy,” he added. “Images began to flood my mind: everyday life with my family, the sense of magic that religion inspired in me, the excitement of wearing my First Communion suit and feeling seen during the ceremony, the delicate and often blurred line between friendship and romance among boys, my family’s silences in the face of my difference, and the constant search for a safe space in a world where I often felt I didn’t belong. Despite it all, I was a boy who searched for magic in the smallest everyday moments, and that sense of wonder gradually helped me discover how I wanted this film to feel.”
Asked about his inspirations for the film, particularly given the success of recent Latin queer coming-of-age stories such as Allan Deberton’s “Gugu’s World,” Pérez said he is inspired by the “sensitivity and humanity” of Chloe Zhao’s films, as well as Carla Simón’s “delicate and authentic depictions of childhood and its sense of wonder.” “Drawing from these influences, I aspire to create an atmospheric, immersive, and reflective film, one that embraces suggestion over explanation and reconnects with the magic a child can find in both nature and faith.”
Pérez emphasized there is a “growing visibility of queer voices in Costa Rica,” seen through stories that are “diverse, daring, genre-defying, and formally innovative.” The director notes how excited he is about upcoming Costa Rican queer films such as “Lost Men” by Andrés Madrigal, having its world premiere at the upcoming Costa Rica Film Festival, and Federico Montero’s “Men Die Sooner,” films Pérez believes “offer a fresh and distinctive perspective on what it means to live as a gay man in Costa Rica.”
Dos de Patos’s producer Paula Vázquez said she has known Pérez “for a while now” and believes “in the film he wants to create.” “I feel like this movie offers a refreshing point of view to Costa Rican cinema at this moment in time,” she adds. “The story is the perfect mix of magic, tenderness and also raw honesty about how lonely it can feel growing up feeling different in a religious Latin American household. It was a no-brainer bringing in Dos de Patos in order to give the film more structure and help make the movie Luis Diego has imagined.”
“I’m moved by the sensitivity with which this story is told,” echoed Isabella Gálvez from Expansiva Cine. “Supporting it from Panama feels like a meaningful way to help create space for queer childhood stories, which are still rarely represented in our region.”
Commenting on the importance of working on Latin American co-production and strengthening the cultural and geographical ties in the region, Vázquez says that, to make a film that remains “faithful to its roots,” “the project must be accompanied by producers and crew members who truly understand that reality and are committed to bringing it to the screen.”
“Luis Diego and I also share the belief that films inspired by our region should reach audiences across Latin America,” she noted. “It is important to us that the people who inspired this story have the opportunity to see it, connect with it, and be moved by it.”
