Andrés Madrigal Explores Costa Rica’s Little-Known Queer History Through Personal Doc ‘Lost Men’

Madrigal's directorial debut, delving into his complicated family history, will world premiere at this year's Costa Rica Film Festival

By Rafa Sales Ross

Rafa Sales Ross

Guest Contributor

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When his grandfather passed away, director Andrés Madrigal felt an urge to pick up his camera and capture every possible moment of that immediate grief. This archival impulse would eventually become Madrigal’s feature debut “Lost Men,” which has its world premiere at the Costa Rica Film Festival.

The intimate doc chronicles Madrigal’s personal family history in the aftermath of the patriarch’s death. The elderly man, who died in a fire in 2019, was married for 57 years in conservative Costa Rica. Following his passing, the director’s father finally shares a long-kept secret: the Madrigal family head was a closeted gay man. Father and son then recollect a life lived in secret as the filmmaker reflects on his own queerness. 

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