About halfway into “Forever Your Maternal Animal,” a striking confession appears almost out of nowhere. The two main characters in the film, sisters in their early twenties, are sitting in a mall restaurant when the younger one says she has sex with the spirits who visit her room at night. She’s so detailed in her description as to make her claim utterly believable. Up until that point, the film has been a drama about a family in quiet crisis — so when the older sister reacts in stunned confusion, she mirrors the audience, who may start rethinking what kind of film they are watching.
In that ambiguous area between reality, tall tales and fantasy lies the temperament of this sophomore effort from Costa Rican-French filmmaker Valentina Maurel — whose Locarno-awarded 2022 debut “I Have Electric Dreams” was Costa Rica’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Additionally, the scene encapsulates the dynamic between the two sisters. The older Elsa (Daniela Marín) is a pragmatist who keeps her cards close to her chest, never revealing much about what she’s thinking. She’s on a break from her life in Belgium, visiting her family in San José. Or so she claims, as the visit seems to have no end in sight.
