Short Films by Kim Torres
Born in the US and raised in rural Costa Rica, Kim Torres is a rising star of Latin American cinema, with her feature debut, "If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light Up the Night", making its debut at San Sebastian in 2025. Her films, focused on characters in the twilight of adolescence, seduce with their intimate, lilting rhythms, even as these are frequently offset by a gently thrumming undercurrent of danger—sometimes geographical, sometimes psychological. Metrograph At Home presents a quartet of her shorts, including 2022’s "Night Light", the first Costa Rican film to be nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes.
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Suncatcher
Directed by Kim Torres | 21 mins | 2021
Go towards the light. Torres’s debut short follows Lila, a shy teenager, who is lured from her online world of K-Pop dances in pursuit of a mysterious gleam, culminating in a metaphysical cyborgian encounter. -
Night Light
Directed by Kim Torres | 14 mins | 2022
In this impressionistic, Cannes-selected short, set in rural Costa Rica and tinged with melancholy, 17-year-old Ale strives to sustain the playful innocence of her two younger siblings after they’re abandoned by their mother. -
The Moon Will Contain Us
Directed by Kim Torres | 18 mins | 2023
Shot on shimmering 16mm, this vivid and dreamy portrait of the youth in the Costa Rican coastal town of Manzanillo—first known to Torres as the place where her father lived out his final decades—is set on the cusp of catastrophe, but animated by the visions... -
I Dreamed of a Gentle Landscape
Directed by Kim Torres | 13 mins | 2025
The limpid second short made by Torres in Manzanillo, after 2023’s "The Moon Will Contain Us", centers on Chunyan, proprietor of a local minimart: salt-scented images of her life in the small Costa Rican village are paired with memories of her hometown of E...
