Costa Rica, for the first time, will have a film shown next month at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival in France by way of director Ishtar Yasir's “El Camino” (The Way).

The film premièred in February at the Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany.

At Cannes, which runs May 14-25, Yasir's movie will not compete but will show in a section of seven films by women directors, reported the daily La Nación.

“'El Camino' is the first Central American film to be in Cannes and, for us, who've given support to this project, it's a great honor to have contributed to this dream,” Luis Javier Castro, the film's co-producer, told La Nación. “We hope more companies are encouraged to invest in these important cultural initiatives.”

“El Camino” tells the story of Saslaya, a Nicaraguan girl who runs away from her sexually abusive grandfather. Saslaya, along with her brother, set off in search of their mother, who had left them in the care of their grandfather years before.

Yasir, a child of an Iraqi refugee and Chilean exile, has said she always identified with “those who are obliged to abandon their homes for reasons beyond their control.”