Forever Your Maternal Animal + Q&A

After the award-winning I Have Electric Dreams, Valentina Maurel returns to the intimate emotional landscape of Costa Rican family life with her Cannes-premiered latest feature: a richly textured drama about motherhood, family, and the impossibility of escaping the past. After years studying in Europe, 28-year-old Elsa returns to Costa Rica to reunite with her family, only to discover that the home she left behind has quietly fallen apart. Her younger sister has withdrawn into an increasingly solitary, esoteric world, while their father drifts from one affair to the next and their mother is consumed by republishing the erotic poems of her youth. Convinced that she is the only one capable of holding the family together, Elsa attempts to restore order—only to realise that stability itself may be an illusion. Balancing sharp humour with profound emotional insight, Forever Your Maternal Animal explores the fragile bonds that continue to unite three women, even as each struggles to define herself on her own terms. The film was awarded the Best Actress Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, recognising the remarkable performances of its three female leads.

Q&A with director Valentina Maurel after the screening.

Cannes Film Festival 2026 – Un Certain Regard
Best Actress – Un Certain Regard (shared by Daniela Marín Navarro, Mariangel Villegas and Marina de Tavira)

Costa Rican-French filmmaker Valentina Maurel first gained international recognition with her short films, including Paul Is Here (2017), winner of the First Prize at La Cinef in Cannes, and Lucía in Limbo (2019). Her debut feature, I Have Electric Dreams (2022), premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won three awards. With Forever Your Maternal Animal, her second feature, Maurel once again explores the complexities of family relationships, returning to her native Costa Rica for an intimate portrait of motherhood, sisterhood and belonging.

I Have Electric Dreams (2022)

Original title: Siempre soy tu animal materno
Director: Valentina Maurel
Cast: Daniela Marín Navarro, Mariangel Villegas, Marina de Tavira, Reinaldo Amién
Cinematography: Nicolás Wong
Screenwriter: Valentina Maurel
Producers: Benoît Roland, Grégoire Debailly
Editor: Bertrand Conard
Music: Mathias Castagné
Run Time: 100 mins