Kattia G. Zúñiga, Director of Malaga Screener ‘Sister & Sister,’ Lines Up Panamanian Dance Drama (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Ed Meza @edmezavar Panamanian-Costa Rican director Kattia G. Zúñiga, whose debut feature “Las hijas” (“Sister & Sister”) premieres at the Malaga Film festival, is developing a new feature project about women finding their and a tougher attitude late in life through the power of dance.

The project re-teams her with “Las Hijas” producer Alejo Crisóstomo. “Rabiosas” (“Raging”, their project, follows a group of 55-year-old friends in Panama who decide to take ballet classes together, as they did when they were schoolgirls, in order to cheer up a friend going through a difficult time and also to get out of the routine of daily life.

Inspired by their 26-year-old teacher, however, they soon switch to bolder dancing moves. Their coach encourages them to release their emotions, especially pent-up anger, and not only in the studio but in their regular lives.

As their development intensifies, they begin to experience changes in the way they perceive themselves and the world around them. “I feel completely free when I’m dancing,” says Zúñiga. “I was lucky to grow up in a society where dancing is a well-accepted pleasure, especially if you are a woman.” She adds, however, that women in her country are “better accepted when they are smiling, when they apologize before speaking, when they don’t contradict. “They taught us that confrontation is dangerous.