Mariangela Villegas as Amalia, and Daniela Marín Navarro as Elsa
“I cannot imagine life without my mother.”
Two sisters bicker while their divorced parents struggle with their own issues. Their mother, Isabel Rivera, played by the charismatic Marina de Tavira (ROMA), is trying to revive her erotic poetry-writing career. She wears huge dark glasses for the launch as she nurses a black eye caused by her new beau, Carlos.
Daniela Marín Navarro as Elsa and her father Nahuel (Reinaldo Amien)
Her ex-husband, Nahuel (in the middle of a mid-life crisis), is trying to introduce his new paramour, Luciana, who looks younger than his daughters. Amalia (20) a convincing Mariangela Villegas, is the younger sister. She's going through a messy emotionally psychotic phase. She locks herself in the old family home with a dog, very loud music and a criminal group of young thugs who boast about being hit men while taking advantage to grow weed in the garden and breed pit bulls for dog fights.
The older sister Elsa (28), the superb Daniela Marín Navarro, has just returned from Brussels where she is studying. She appears to be the only one who still has her head screwed on in the right direction, but, under the veneer, she's also feeling insecure, sleeping around and we gradually learn she's back in Costa Rica because she’s also avoiding relationship issues with her boyfriend, Sven, who remained in Europe
Mariangela Villegas as Amalia and Daniela Marín Navarro as Elsa
As things amble on in this family, there is drama and comedy, seemingly with no end in sight. There are scenes of dogs covered in blood and Amalia appearing so distressed that her sister fears for her. Yet Amalia rejects all offers of help and talks about leaving with her new boyfriend, Durán, to Nicaragua, leaving Elsa distraught.
The family home has been almost totally taken over by the dodgy gang. Amalia emotionally yearns for the original family cleaner, Dora, whom she adored, refusing point blank to believe she's not able to turn up because she’s dying. The house itself is also clearly in need of urgent repairs, with the plumbing having totally packed up. But despite Dad, Nahuel (played by Reinaldo Amien) making loads of promises to fix things, nothing improves.
Mother Isabel Rivera, having been out of the limelight for some time, frets more about Botox and what people will think of her than her two daughters who are both in desperate need of her absent warmth. At the re-launch of her best-selling book of erotic poems, she is visibly nervous when asked to read one of her poems to the audience: -
So much desire / The temple oils upon my body / wet with your body /
I desire, on my knees, the scent of your sex like a thick liqueur- so much!
The purple sweat of spices streaming over my tongue,
The cave of your mouth and its dragons … sex… sex …
Meanwhile, Amalia continues to go downhill. She insists to her concerned sister that she’s saving herself for marriage with regards to sex, but also rambles about “the spirits that come in the night” and make love to her as she explains: -
“You have to put a line of salt, so that they cannot get in, for it immobilizes them - so they can’t touch you.”
Valentina Maurel- writer and director.
Valentina Maurel has managed to create familiar scenarios with this dysfunctional family. There are echoes that would reverberate in most people’s lives. There are the cross-purposes, the selfishness, and, yet in the end the love that still somehow survives in the chaos. Many will have a momentary smile at some point or other in this movie, for, in reality, these are universal issues.
Valentina Maurel born and raised in Costa Rica went on to study in Paris and Brussels. Her first short 2017 was “Paul est là” that won the Cinéfondation first jury prize in Cannes that year. Her second film “Lucia in limbo” (2019) was also screened in the Critic’s Week at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. Her third film “I have Electric Dreams” was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for 'Best European Feature Film'. To date, she’s been awarded 19 wins and 24 nominations
Daniela Marín Navarro in 'I have Electric Dreams'
This year, at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section, the female lead performances in this film have been rewarded with a Best Actress Award: so it has been shared between Mexican Marina de Tavira and Costa Ricans Daniela Marín Navarro, Mariangela Villegas and Valentina Maurel.
FOREVER THE MATERNAL ANIMAL (2026- Soy Tu Animal Materno)
Written and directed by Valentina Maurel
Producers: Grégoire Debailly and Benoit Roland/ DOP: Nicolás Wong / Editor: Bertrand Conard / Production Designer: Julián Gómez/ Sound Editors: Sabrina Calmels and Ingrid Simon.
CAST: Elsa: Daniela Marín Navarro /Isabel : Marina de Tavira /Amalia: Mariangela Villegas /Nahuel: Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez Pardo / Cripy: Harol Alcócer / Deyanara: Violeta Durán Alvarado / also with Habacuc Guillermo Vargas Jiménez .
