Renate Costa
Writing
Biography
Renate Costa Perdomo (Asunción, May 21, 1981 – Paris, June 29, 2020) was a Paraguayan screenwriter, director, and producer. In 2010, she wrote and directed the documentary 108 Cuchillo de Palo, which garnered international acclaim. This documentary stands out for its intimate story in which Renate Costa recounts the experiences of her uncle, Rodolfo Costa, a witness to the torture of homosexuals during the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship. Furthermore, the documentary premiered amidst a period of political change in Paraguay, as in 2008 the Colorado Party lost power after 61 years, opening Paraguay to profound criticism of its political and social system.
Known For
Olga, exhausted, abused by her boyfriend, comes to take refuges in her son's apartment. Her son is involved in a passionate relationship with his girlfriend in a burning hot city. Olga finds herself a prisoner of her desire, inflamed by the young couple's intimacy.
Olga
Of all my uncles, Rodolfo was the only one who didn't want to be a blacksmith like my grandfather: He wanted to be a dancer. The search for the traces of his life leads to the discovery that in the eighties in Paraguay, under Stroessner's dictatorship, Rodolfo was included in one of the "108 lists of homosexuals", arrested and tortured. Rodolfo's story reveals a part of the hidden and silenced history of my country. In "Cuchillo de palo" two generations come face to face in a confrontation that ultimately allows each of us to understand our place in the world.
108
In the middle of the forest, an old man insists on resisting the confusion of the world. The only sounds that he allows himself are the ones of Nature around him and the typewriter which composes his thoughts. An essential documentary about the vividness and clarity in the eyes of a man who refuses hypocrisy and worldliness.