use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $string = q({file => 'file1', desc  => 'test'}, {file => 'file12', desc => 'test2'});
my @array_of_hashes;

my @hashes = $string =~ /(\{.*?\})/g;

for my $hashstr (@hashes) {
    my @keys = $hashstr =~ /(\w+)\s*=>/g;
    my @values = $hashstr =~ /=>\s*\'(\w+)\'/g;
    
    my %hash;
    @hash{@keys} = @values;
    push @array_of_hashes, \%hash;
}

print Dumper(\@array_of_hashes);

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          {
            'desc' => 'test',
            'file' => 'file1'
          },
          {
            'desc' => 'test2',
            'file' => 'file12'
          }
        ];