{"id":4087,"date":"2026-07-13T12:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4087"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T12:07:23","slug":"fantastic-lab-winner-we-wont-let-the-goat-die-bolstered-by-new-partners-santiago-duran-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4087","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Lab Winner \u2018We Won\u2019t Let the Goat Die\u2019 Bolstered by New Partners, Santiago Dur\u00e1n (EXCLUSIVE)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tFour years after Ariel Escalante\u2019s \u201cDomingo and the Mist\u201d premiered to acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, Costa Rica\u2019s flourishing Incendio Cine label continues to strike key co-production deals in the Central American country. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4085\">Ammy Virk, Neeru Bajwa, Harrdy Sandhu Punjabi Films Acquired by India\u2019s Panorama Studios for Worldwide Release (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tPanama\u2019s Expansive Cine and Peru\u2019s Cine Infinito have just joined Felipe Z\u00fa\u00f1iga\u2019s solo directorial debut \u201cWe Won\u2019t Let the Goat Die,\u201d the winner of the grand prize at this year\u2019s Fantastic Lab Central America &amp; Caribbean, with seasoned producer Santiago Dur\u00e1n also boarding the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWe Won\u2019t Let the Goat Die\u201d trails ten-year-old Bernardo, who becomes consumed with watching over his mother following the sudden death of his father. As the widow struggles with depression, her son secretly rescues and cares for an injured goat deep within the tropical rainforest. When an ocelot begins prowling the neighborhood and a mysterious green light appears in the sky, Bernardo is forced to confront the harsh, uncontrollable nature of growing up.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe film began with a feeling that stayed with me throughout my childhood: the feeling of being a child who had to take care of the adults,\u201d the director tells <em>Variety <\/em>ahead of presenting the film at the upcoming Costa Rica Media Market. \u201cI grew up in a home where I never fully knew what might happen. My mother went through very severe emotional crises, and my father struggled with alcohol. I was always alert to noises, changes in mood, and any sign that something might get out of control. For a long time, I believed it was my responsibility to keep my family together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe director emphasizes, however, that the film does not \u201creconstruct\u201d his childhood, but that he and his protagonist \u201cshare a way of looking at the world.\u201d \u201cWe both know the fear of losing a home and that impossible need to protect the people who are supposed to protect us. \u2018We Won\u2019t Let the Goat Die\u2019 is not an autobiographical film, but it is built from the emotional material of my childhood: fear, tenderness, imagination and the idea that perhaps loving and caring for someone might be enough to keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cLa Llorona\u201d cinematographer Nicol\u00e1s Wong, a previous <em>Variety <\/em>Talent to Track, produces the film alongside Zu\u00f1iga via Incendio Cine. The producer says the success he and the director found through their production label is a result of how they have \u201cpinpointed what we want to do as producers.\u201d In that sense, co-productions are an \u201cimportant\u201d element of their international projection.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cBut equally as important for us is to develop auteur projects that make the most of our regional and budgetary limitations with passion and efficiency, and hopefully that will come through on the international scene,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4083\">Sam Neill\u2019s Career in Photos: \u2018Jurassic Park,\u2019 \u2018The Piano,\u2019 \u2018Peaky Blinders\u2019 and More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tZu\u00f1iga echoes that thought, saying that \u201cco-production is still one of the best ways to get our projects off the ground.\u201d \u201cOur partners in Panama and Peru are trusted collaborators. Isabella G\u00e1lvez and Jimena Hospina are two producers whose work we greatly admire, and we have already worked together on previous projects, so we couldn\u2019t be happier with the partnership we have built,\u201d he adds, noting that Incendio is also currently in final talks with Clara Films, headed by Clara Larra\u00edn from Chile, about joining the project as a new co-producer.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRecently, Zu\u00f1iga co-directed \u201cNo One Knows We Play Today\u201d with Valentina Maurel, whose \u201cForever Your Maternal Animal\u201d played to acclaim and a prize at this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival\u2019s Un Certain Regard. Speaking on the momentum of Costa Rican cinema, the director says that \u201cin recent years, films with very different voices and approaches have emerged, many of them led by women directors with bold, sharp and deeply personal perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to be close to some of those processes as an assistant director, working with Nathalie \u00c1lvarez Mes\u00e9n on \u2018Clara Sola,\u2019 Sof\u00eda Quir\u00f3s on \u2018Land of Ashes,\u2019 Valentina Maurel on \u2018I Have Electric Dreams\u2019 and \u2018Forever Your Maternal Animal,\u2019 among other projects,\u201d he notes. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tHe added: \u201cAfter working on more than 20 Costa Rican films, I\u2019ve seen how our cinema has expanded the ways in which it represents the country. There isn\u2019t just one way of making films from Costa Rica, and I think that diversity is one of our greatest strengths. These films are finding their own languages, their own relationships with the territory and an international presence that, a few years ago, seemed much harder to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tDespite the recent success of his national cinema, Zu\u00f1iga issues an alert that the growth exists \u201calongside a great deal of fragility.\u201d \u201cWe still work within small and unstable funding structures. Very often, every film has to reinvent from scratch the conditions that will allow it to exist. The challenge now is to turn international recognition into continuity, resources and better working conditions for the people making films in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4081\">Val\u00e9rie Donzelli, Carolina Cavalli to Chair Venice\u2019s Horizons, Luigi De Laurentiis Juries<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Clara Sola&#8217; assistant director Felipe Zu\u00f1iga to make solo directorial debut with &#8216;We Won&#8217;t Let the Goat Die,&#8217; which finds partners in Peru and Panama<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3308,3307,3323],"class_list":["post-4087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-costa-rica-media-market","tag-costa-rica","tag-felipe-zuniga"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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