Memories of a burning body


Raised in a repressive era where sexuality was taboo, Ana, Patricia, and Mayela found their understanding of womanhood based on unspoken rules and implicit impositions. Now, their fearless voices incarnate in a single 65-year-old woman, who revisits a kaleidoscopic life of intertwined memories, secrets, and hidden desires.

  • Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
    Director
    El despertar de las hormigas (Hormigas)
  • Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
    Writer
    El despertar de las hormigas (Hormigas)
  • Manrique Cortés Castro
    Producer
  • Estephania Bonnett
    Producer
  • Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
    Producer
  • Sol Carballo
    Key Cast
    "Woman"
  • Paulina Bernini
    Key Cast
    "Young Woman"
  • Juliana Filloy
    Key Cast
    "Girl"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Memorias de un cuerpo que arde
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Drama, Social Issues
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    377,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Costa Rica
  • Country of Filming:
    Costa Rica
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    2k
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Berlinale
    Berlin
    Germany
    February 19, 2024
    World Premiere
    Panorama
Distribution Information
  • Bendita Films Sales
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Antonella Sudasassi Furniss

Antonella Sudasassi Furniss is a Costa Rican writer, director and producer. Her first feature film "El despertar de las hormigas"(Hormigas) premiered at the Berlinale 2019. The film was selected as the Costa Rican entry for the Academy Awards. It became the first Central American film to receive a Goya Award nomination, and the first Costa Rican film to win a Platino Award. It was selected in more than 65 international film festivals and has received 15 international awards. In her work as a director, she has been interested in telling stories centered on female characters and how they understand their sexuality at different stages of their lives.

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Director Statement

This film is a collective outcry, the story of women who despite the taboos, dare to talk about their sexuality, what it meant to grow up in a catholic and conservative society that prohibited almost everything. It prohibited playing, exploring, enjoying. When frustration was the norm, they had to learn about joy on their own. Out of disinformation and silence they had to find answers about their bodies, about their various and constant metamorphoses. Menstruation, virginity, motherhood, menopause, life and death. Understand themselves as women in a world that limited them. Until they said enough.

The women protagonists of this film may not show their faces, but their voices most definitely scream. This film is an ode to all women creators of the universe, who gave birth to us, who cared for us, who invited us to raise questions so that today things are different for us.