In the life of a few, there are destinies that were not planned.
These are new and highly unlikely destinies, forged from zero by the owner of that life, who with creativity, rebelliousness and passion, manage to turn into reality that which they were told… would be impossible.

A story of similar scope is what Guana Productions, an audio visual production company based in Tamarindo, wanted to tell us. In March, they gathered an interdisciplinary team of artists and filmed a story of a boy from Guanacaste who broke the mold and built his life to fit his own dreams.

It was in this way that Fe de Agua, a short movie filmed in various locations throughout Guanacaste took shape. 
It tells the story of Mauricio, a sabanero (country) boy that dared to exchange his machete for a surfboard and the four-meter high sugar cane fields for waves of similar proportion. 

Mauricio carved a new destiny for himself through many adventures, difficulties and efforts; one that theoretically did not belong to him, one that simply, was not written amongst his possibilities.  And he achieved it.

This is the theme of the film.  It is not a short surfing feature, it is more a story of life, of relationships, of culture, of family ties, and of persevering amongst life’s various challenges  to achieve one’s dreams.

 The executive producers, Natasha Pachano and Thornton Cohen, put together all the ingredients and managed to tell this story spanning one decade in a 20-minute film.

The plot that unfolds in Fe de Agua was born of the imagination and of the combined life experiences of Jonathan Jonkers, Sergio Pucci and John Osbourne and it was adapted for the big screen by Alrick Brown. Brown is a movie director based in New York, who was in charge of guiding the team of professional and amateur volunteers, composed of Costa Ricans and foreign residents, with varying levels of experience. 

Luckily for the project, Brown is an experienced director.  His Masters in Arts combined with his work as a professor at the school of cinematography at Rutgers University, allowed him not only to direct the film but also to train the first time actors (Guanacastecans playing themselves) and part of the technical team.

The filming took place in March and the work is now in the editing process.  We are all patiently awaiting its premiere scheduled for the end of July in Playa Tamarindo.   Following the premiere, the short feature will be presented in a series of festivals around the country and abroad placing a part of Guanacaste and its people in the spotlight for audiences around the world to see.