A film on the 6,300 Maria Rodriguezes of Costa Rica

San Jose: Over 6,300 women in Costa Rica have Maria Rodriguez as their names, prompting the Costa Rican government to produce a documentary based on their lives.

The documentary follows the daily lives of five women named Maria Rodriguez, and even held a meeting asking all women of that name to gather here in the capital city during the weekend. The film, titled "Maria Rodriguez", will be released in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries and intends "to portray the Costa Rican woman and society through the lives of five very different women," Alonso Arias, one of the directors, said. Despite having the same name, the five Marias in the documentary "are very different" in terms of age, socio-economic status, ambitions and their geographic location, Arias said. The producers invited women named Maria Rodriguez to a party in San Jose as a "tribute to the Costa Rican woman" and to shoot a number of scenes for the documentary. All the Maria Rodriguezes who attended the party got to know one another and enjoyed the party with lots of food, music and dancing, he said. The film, written and directed by Gustavo Loria and Arias, is an initiative of the governments of Ibero-American nations, the countries that were formerly Spanish or Portuguese colonies. IANS