At Ji.hlava 2024, producer Ashley J. Smith, of the Stockholm-based outfit Sisyfos Film, and director André Robert pitched their new documentary project, The Violent Skin, which is currently in post-production. The film is a co-production between Costa Rica, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden.
In The Violent Skin, Robert returns to his family’s rustic cabin in the coastal town of Cuajiniquil, ten years after scattering his father’s ashes in the same sea that, now altered by climate change, threatens to erase their home and history.
Haunted by the silence that defined his father’s life, the director seeks to confront the legacy of intergenerational violence burdening the men in his family. He recalls a symbolic journey with his uncle Sergio, a reclusive hunter from Costa Rica’s northern mountains, who invited him into the wilderness to track a jaguar—a story resonating with themes of family, identity, and survival.
Robert is a documentary maker and creative producer born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1990. He graduated in Film & TV Production from Loyola Marymount University and holds two Master’s degrees in Creative Documentary Filmmaking and Project Management from Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University. His self-produced short films have screened at international festivals, including the Málaga Film Festival, CurtaCinema in Rio de Janeiro, and the Costa Rica International Film Festival. As a creative producer, his projects have been selected for various development programmes such as 3 Puertos Cine, Campus Latino, Málaga WIP LATAM, Verzio DocLab, and most recently, this year’s edition of IDFA Academy.
“We are so proud to produce this film, an autobiographical debut feature that has been in the making for ten years,” said producer Smith, before showing the project’s teaser.
“Ten years ago, I held my father’s last breath in our childhood home in the north of Costa Rica. My mother and my sister looked to me—the man of the house—to find the right words, but I just couldn’t. Once again, I repressed my emotions and remained silent. After all, silence has been our main language for years,” explained Robert. “I’m a queer filmmaker; I’m sure you know what ‘remaining silent’ means.”
Once Robert returned to his childhood home, he found it devastated by the hurricanes and rising tides in which he had spread his father’s ashes. “As I witness the impending loss of my family, I received an unexpected call from my estranged uncle, Sergio, a jaguar hunter living in isolation. Our shared grief compels me to follow him into the wilderness,” Robert says, adding that jaguar hunting is generally viewed negatively by Costa Rican society and is therefore kept hidden.
In the film, Robert attempts to reconnect with Sergio. “It’s an exploration of how violence has been passed down in my family, from generation to generation,” he summed up.
The hybrid documentary feature is being produced by Smith with Mario Adamson in Sweden and Robert’s own outfit, Malcriada Films, based in Barcelona. Some of the confirmed backers include Switzerland’s Ministry of Culture and the Swedish Film Institute. Delivery is slated for next summer, with picture-lock in spring and rough cut available early January.
“The film invites the audience to confront their own family relationships, identity and the natural world. We hope for a future made of empathy and openness,” Smith concluded. The team is currently looking for festivals, sales, distributors and broadcasters, aiming for a premiere at an A-list event.
