Toronto Fest-Bound ‘Love Is the Monster’ a Bendita Film Sales Pick-Up

Spanish boutique sales outfit Bendita Film Sales has picked up worldwide rights to Neto Villalobos’ “Love is the Monster” ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF)’s Centrepiece global showcase program.

Shot in Golfito, situated in Costa Rica’s Southern Pacific coast, the dystopian thriller stars Berlinale Silver Bear actress award winner Paulina Garcia who plays a grandmother who doesn’t have long to live. Bent on making the most of what time she has left, she seeks out her seven-year-old granddaughter who lives in a gated community with her mother. When her granddaughter is kidnapped, she sets out to rescue her, whatever it takes.

“’Love Is the Monster’ immediately pulled us into its strange, threatening world. Neto Villalobos turns an intimate family story into a tense tropical dystopia that feels both unfamiliar and disturbingly close — a thriller in which love, fear and the instinct to protect begin to blur into something much more dangerous,” said Luis Renart, CEO/Sales & Acquisitions at Bendita Film Sales.

The multi-country drama is produced by La Sucia Centroamericana (Costa Rica) in co-production with Cine Infinito (Peru), Expansiva Cine (Panama), Clara Films (Chile), Avalancha Studio (Mexico) and Liminal Estudio (Mexico). 

“It feels especially meaningful to return to Toronto with ‘Love is the Monster.’ Both Neto Villalobos and Paulina García have previously premiered at TIFF, but this marks the first time they come together on a film. With Bendita Film Sales joining as our international sales agent, we’re excited to use this premiere as the beginning of the film’s journey toward audiences around the world,” said producer Ana Lucia Arias of La Sucia Centroamericana.

“As Neto’s most broadly appealing film to date, we couldn’t imagine a better place for this tropical dystopian thriller to begin that journey than TIFF’s Centrepiece,” she added.

“In my third feature, I pursue a slow-burning, visceral approach to explore the moral dilemma of a grandmother willing to do whatever it takes to protect her granddaughter, regardless of the consequences,” Villalobos told Variety in a previous interview, adding that he wanted “to explore how far a grandmother can go for love, in a world where tenderness and violence coexist under the same skin.” His previous pics, “All About the Feathers” and “Helmet Heads,” both premiered at TIFF.

The project’s development trajectory included its participation in the San Sebastian Co-Production Forum, the Costa Rica Industry IFF, winning the Cinerent Award, Panama Film Match, Co-Production Forum Panama IFF, Cinema en Development, Cinelatino Toulouse IFF, the Costa Rica Media Market (Warner Bros and Press Award), Darkroom WIP Rotterdam IFF, Panama IFF WIP, Curaçao IFF WIP (Atomica prize) and the ECAM Last Push WIP Madrid.

Its crew includes two Variety Costa Rican Below-the-Line Talent to Track: DP Nicolas Wong and production designer Mauricio Esquivel.

The 51^st edition of the Toronto Intl. Film Festival runs over Sept. 10-20.