With human justice absent in the awful political bloodshed in Central America, Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamente finds payback in cinematic fantasy. A crooked government exonerates a genocidal general, but his estate is besieged around the clock by Mayan-Ixil Indio protesters. Into the house comes a new maid — a tiny young woman who may nevertheless wield supernatural powers. The moody art-horror show is as delicate as The Innocents or a Val Lewton chiller — horror once again becomes an excellent means to address political evil. Slow and deliberate, it reverberates with horror history without copying the classics.
La Llorona (2019)
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1156
2019 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 18, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: María Mercedes Coroy, Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kenéfic, Julio Diaz, María Telón, Juan Pablo Olyslager, Ayla-Elea Hurtado.
Cinematography: Nicolás Wong
Production Designer: Sebastián Muñoz
Costume Design: Beatriz Lantán
Film Editors: Jayro Bustamante, Gustavo Matheu
Original...
La Llorona (2019)
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1156
2019 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 18, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: María Mercedes Coroy, Sabrina De La Hoz, Margarita Kenéfic, Julio Diaz, María Telón, Juan Pablo Olyslager, Ayla-Elea Hurtado.
Cinematography: Nicolás Wong
Production Designer: Sebastián Muñoz
Costume Design: Beatriz Lantán
Film Editors: Jayro Bustamante, Gustavo Matheu
Original...
- 10/22/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jayro Bustamante Is Building the Guatemalan Film Industry from Scratch with Movies Like ‘La Llorona’
A Google search for Guatemalan submissions for the International Feature Oscar will yield just three titles, and two of them are directed by Jayro Bustamante, the queer 43-year-old director and screenwriter behind this year’s entry “La Llorona.” That’s because there’s no real movie industry in Guatemala, his native country, where you could count the number of films made each year on one hand. Bustamante wanted to do something about it, and so he founded La Casa De Producción in 2009 to give natives “an opportunity to become icons, and to become actors, and not just people who see films,” as he explained to IndieWire. “There is not any help coming from the state, and there are no private investors. It’s a completely individual effort coming from the directors.”
More than a decade later, Guatemala is finally on the international cinema map thanks to “La Llorona,” Bustamante’s...
More than a decade later, Guatemala is finally on the international cinema map thanks to “La Llorona,” Bustamante’s...
- 3/5/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
This review of “La Llorona” was first published following its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
For his third and most tonally adventurous feature to date, socially perceptive writer-director Jayro Bustamante repurposes one of Latin America’s most ubiquitous supernatural legends to fiercely examine genocide against indigenous people in his native Guatemala. Invoking genre narrative devices, the entrancingly evocative “La Llorona” (“The Weeping Woman”) walks between fact and myth to engender a shrewdly frightening piece of political horror.
Sadistic military dictator General Enrique Monteverde (Julio Diaz), a fictionalized incarnation of the country’s former president Efraín Ríos Montt, stands accused of sanctioning the murder of thousands of Maya Ixil people in the Central American nation between 1982 and 1983. Battling health complications but still refusing to accept any fault, Monteverde is found guilty thanks to the courageous testimony of Ixil women still mourning their dead. Bustamante shoots the courtroom as a spiritual confessional devoid of natural light.
For his third and most tonally adventurous feature to date, socially perceptive writer-director Jayro Bustamante repurposes one of Latin America’s most ubiquitous supernatural legends to fiercely examine genocide against indigenous people in his native Guatemala. Invoking genre narrative devices, the entrancingly evocative “La Llorona” (“The Weeping Woman”) walks between fact and myth to engender a shrewdly frightening piece of political horror.
Sadistic military dictator General Enrique Monteverde (Julio Diaz), a fictionalized incarnation of the country’s former president Efraín Ríos Montt, stands accused of sanctioning the murder of thousands of Maya Ixil people in the Central American nation between 1982 and 1983. Battling health complications but still refusing to accept any fault, Monteverde is found guilty thanks to the courageous testimony of Ixil women still mourning their dead. Bustamante shoots the courtroom as a spiritual confessional devoid of natural light.
- 3/4/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Jayro Bustamante on his Oscar shortlisted and Golden Globe nominated La Llorona: “There are a lot of things coming from the classic mythology.”
Jayro Bustamante deftly and imaginatively places his La Llorona (co-written with Lisandro Sanchez) at the intersection of history and legend. The ancient tale of the weeping woman who has haunted Latin American childhoods for centuries, here gains footing in recent Guatemalan history. General Enrique (Julio Diaz), now an old man, is among those on trial for the genocide of thousands. In 1982/83 one third of the Mayan population in Guatemala were exterminated, 38% were children under 12. Enrique’s wife Carmen (Margarita Kenéfic), daughter Natalia (Sabrina De La Hoz), granddaughter Sara (Ayla-Elea Hurtado), and Valeriana (María Telón), the only servant who remains loyal in the house, have to open their eyes to the family legacy.
Jayro Bustamante on Alma (María Mercedes Coroy): “I give to my Llorona that princess aspect,...
Jayro Bustamante deftly and imaginatively places his La Llorona (co-written with Lisandro Sanchez) at the intersection of history and legend. The ancient tale of the weeping woman who has haunted Latin American childhoods for centuries, here gains footing in recent Guatemalan history. General Enrique (Julio Diaz), now an old man, is among those on trial for the genocide of thousands. In 1982/83 one third of the Mayan population in Guatemala were exterminated, 38% were children under 12. Enrique’s wife Carmen (Margarita Kenéfic), daughter Natalia (Sabrina De La Hoz), granddaughter Sara (Ayla-Elea Hurtado), and Valeriana (María Telón), the only servant who remains loyal in the house, have to open their eyes to the family legacy.
Jayro Bustamante on Alma (María Mercedes Coroy): “I give to my Llorona that princess aspect,...
- 2/28/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ancient myths, religious otherworldliness, and culturally tailored re-imaginings of classic tropes or creatures populate the landscape of Latino horror. Although genre films have been present in Latin American cinema since the 1930s, over the last two decades — with the advent of digital filmmaking and increased government investment in the art form — they have exponentially flourished in the region.
Meanwhile, in the United States, Latinx audiences are known to be enthusiastic (and paying) fans of all things horror, even if Hollywood projects rarely include Latinos on screen. There are still few genre features by or about American Latinos out there, but up-and-coming storytellers are striving to change that. As streamers and studios vow to support emerging voices in entertainment, this is a space ripe for growth.
A thematically compelling quality in many of the most prominent Latino horror films is that genre often serves as a vehicle to create discourse around...
Meanwhile, in the United States, Latinx audiences are known to be enthusiastic (and paying) fans of all things horror, even if Hollywood projects rarely include Latinos on screen. There are still few genre features by or about American Latinos out there, but up-and-coming storytellers are striving to change that. As streamers and studios vow to support emerging voices in entertainment, this is a space ripe for growth.
A thematically compelling quality in many of the most prominent Latino horror films is that genre often serves as a vehicle to create discourse around...
- 10/24/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
"Not the ghost story you're expecting..." Shudder has unveiled an official US trailer for a Guatemalan horror film titled La Llorona, from talented filmmaker Jayro Bustamante. This first premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, and also played at TIFF, San Sebastián, Bergen, Zurich, London, Stockholm, Thessaloniki, Tokyo, and the Chicago Film Festival. A tale of horror and magical realism, the film reimagines the iconic Latin American fable as an urgent metaphor of Guatemala's recent history and then tears open the country's unhealed political wounds to grieve a seldom discussed crime against humanity. Not to be confused with the horror movie The Curse of La Llorona from last year. The film stars Maria Mercedes Coroy, Margarita Kenefic, Sabrina de la Hoz, María Telón, and Julio Diaz. This looks damn good! A twist on the usual supernatural horror, connecting politics with a ghost story and adding some serious thrills. A must watch.
- 7/14/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
A region bustling with the winds of change throughout the 2010s — both progressive and retrograde — Latin America enjoyed a banner decade that witnessed the rise of films grappling with economic inequality, indigenous discrimination, and Lgbtq+ issues.
Mexico’s production continued to skyrocket (from Amat Escalante to Eugenio Derbez), Chile emerged as a powerhouse in both the arthouse and mainstream markets (with the Larraín brothers’ Fabula production company and the unofficial movement known as Chilewood), and countries like Panama (“Invasion”), the Dominican Republic (“Woodpeckers”), and Paraguay (“The Heiresses”) made strides towards a more consistent output of noteworthy offers. Although far from a definitive list, these 11 features give the world the opportunity to take a peek at the varied perspectives of Latin American creators, veterans and up-and-comers:
“Aquarius” (2016)
Vigorous and sensual, Sonia Braga commands director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s vital character study in her career-best work playing Doña Clara. The timeless Brazilian...
Mexico’s production continued to skyrocket (from Amat Escalante to Eugenio Derbez), Chile emerged as a powerhouse in both the arthouse and mainstream markets (with the Larraín brothers’ Fabula production company and the unofficial movement known as Chilewood), and countries like Panama (“Invasion”), the Dominican Republic (“Woodpeckers”), and Paraguay (“The Heiresses”) made strides towards a more consistent output of noteworthy offers. Although far from a definitive list, these 11 features give the world the opportunity to take a peek at the varied perspectives of Latin American creators, veterans and up-and-comers:
“Aquarius” (2016)
Vigorous and sensual, Sonia Braga commands director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s vital character study in her career-best work playing Doña Clara. The timeless Brazilian...
- 12/28/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Summoning nature’s earth-shaking forces — first volcanic eruptions, now earthquakes — to serve as resounding signifiers of instability, Guatemalan auteur Jayro Bustamante’s two features to date roar as sobering assessments of systematic marginalization in a society unwilling to broaden its viciously narrow status quo. First, “Ixcanul” objected to corrosive misogyny and racism; now homophobia is the target in his sophomore social drama “Tremors,” which had its North American premiere last March at the Miami Film Festival and opens theatrically Friday.
Bustamante’s social pariah, a white man from the upper crust of society, is far removed, at least in obvious parallels, from the teenage indigenous woman chastised by her community for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the director’s debut. Their personal hells, however, emanate from the same phallocentric well of hatred. In both instances, Bustamante lets his embattled protagonists unravel without the empty promise of a fortunate resolution.
A masculine fellow by all traditional parameters,...
Bustamante’s social pariah, a white man from the upper crust of society, is far removed, at least in obvious parallels, from the teenage indigenous woman chastised by her community for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the director’s debut. Their personal hells, however, emanate from the same phallocentric well of hatred. In both instances, Bustamante lets his embattled protagonists unravel without the empty promise of a fortunate resolution.
A masculine fellow by all traditional parameters,...
- 11/29/2019
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
"Do you believe that we have the right to be happy if it hurts other people?" Film Movement has debuted an official Us trailer for the acclaimed Guatemalan drama Tremors, not to be confused with the monster movie cult classic of the same name. Originally titled Temblores in Spanish, the film is about the coming out of an evangelical patriarch, which shatters his family, his community and uncovers a profoundly repressive society. This first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and has stopped by numerous other major festivals including Seattle, Outfest, San Sebastián, Athens, Vancouver, London, and Chicago. Starring Juan Pablo Olyslager, Mauricio Armas, Diane Bathen, María Telón, and Sergio Luna. This has been receiving rave reviews from critics, who say it has "extraordinary nuance [and] compassion." Definitely worth a look. Here's the official Us trailer (+ intl. trailers & posters) for Jayro Bustamante's Tremors, from YouTube: When the handsome and...
- 10/21/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
San Sebastian — In one of the banner deals at this year’s San Sebastian, Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Ent, the sales agent on “Wild Tales,” “The Clan” and now Argentine Oscar entry “El Angel,” has pounced on world sales rights to “La Llorona,” which stars the female leads of Bustamante’s Berlin awarded debut “Ixcanul.”
Deal was struck at this year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, where “La Llorona” walked off with one of the top prizes, the EFADs-caci Co-production Grant, adjudicated by Europe and Latin America’s powerful state film agencies, from the BFI to France’s Cnc, Mexico’s Imcine or Argentina’s Incaa, a sign that “La Llorona” is the kind of film that these government film funds want to encourage.
Backed by French investor George Renard, who will serve as associate producer, “La Llorona” is scheduled to shoot from this December, Bustamante said. If ready,...
Deal was struck at this year’s San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, where “La Llorona” walked off with one of the top prizes, the EFADs-caci Co-production Grant, adjudicated by Europe and Latin America’s powerful state film agencies, from the BFI to France’s Cnc, Mexico’s Imcine or Argentina’s Incaa, a sign that “La Llorona” is the kind of film that these government film funds want to encourage.
Backed by French investor George Renard, who will serve as associate producer, “La Llorona” is scheduled to shoot from this December, Bustamante said. If ready,...
- 9/27/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
San Sebastian — Pablo Fendrik’s “Hermano Peligro,” Jayro Bustamante’s “La Llorona,” Matthias Huser’s “The Jungle” and Clara Roquet’s “Libertad” took one prize a piece at San Sebastian’s 7th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which wrapped Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, “The Sharks,” the first feature of Uruguay’s Lucia Garibaldi, swept San Sebastian’s Films in Progress.
While awards in the past have sometimes gone to little-known projects, this year saw plaudits shared by four of the strongest projects at the market in terms of director reknown, prestige producer backing or even, in the case of “La Llorona,” a sales market deal.
Winner of the Co-production Forum Best Project Award, “Hermano Peligro,” for instance, comes from a director. Pablo Fendrik, whose first three films, “The Mugger,” “Blood Appears” and “Ardor” have all been selected for the Cannes Festival, before he went on to co-direct two of the most distinguished...
Meanwhile, “The Sharks,” the first feature of Uruguay’s Lucia Garibaldi, swept San Sebastian’s Films in Progress.
While awards in the past have sometimes gone to little-known projects, this year saw plaudits shared by four of the strongest projects at the market in terms of director reknown, prestige producer backing or even, in the case of “La Llorona,” a sales market deal.
Winner of the Co-production Forum Best Project Award, “Hermano Peligro,” for instance, comes from a director. Pablo Fendrik, whose first three films, “The Mugger,” “Blood Appears” and “Ardor” have all been selected for the Cannes Festival, before he went on to co-direct two of the most distinguished...
- 9/26/2018
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Four burgeoning Latin American auteurs – Argentina’s Pablo Fendrik and Emiliano Torres, Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante and Chile’s Pepa San Martín – will present new movie projects at San Sebastian’s 7th Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, the biggest industry event at the most important festival in Spain and Latin America.
Project screenplays still have to be read. Lent edge, however, by the presence of titles from nine women, including two of Catalonia’s most exciting young female cineasts, Meritxell Colell and Clara Roquet, the Forum competition will also welcome some of the producer movers and shakers on Ibero-America’s arthouse scene: Brazil’s Dezenove, Argentina’s Rei Cine and Varsovia Films, Spain’s Avalon and Lastor Media.
Add to that mix two players on three ever more ambitious film hubs – the Basque Country’s Gariza Films, Switzerland’s Matthias Huser and Moroco Alfredo Colman at Argentina second-city Cordoba – and...
Project screenplays still have to be read. Lent edge, however, by the presence of titles from nine women, including two of Catalonia’s most exciting young female cineasts, Meritxell Colell and Clara Roquet, the Forum competition will also welcome some of the producer movers and shakers on Ibero-America’s arthouse scene: Brazil’s Dezenove, Argentina’s Rei Cine and Varsovia Films, Spain’s Avalon and Lastor Media.
Add to that mix two players on three ever more ambitious film hubs – the Basque Country’s Gariza Films, Switzerland’s Matthias Huser and Moroco Alfredo Colman at Argentina second-city Cordoba – and...
- 8/9/2018
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Panama City — As Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante finalizes post-production on drama “Tremors,” the follow-up to his Berlin Silver Bear-winning debut “Ixcanul,” he’s also prepping his next feature, “La Llorona” (The Weeping Woman).
It will be produced by his company, La Casa de Producción. “La Llorona” – starring Maria Mercedes Caroy and María Telón, the lead actresses of “Ixcanul” – is about the Guatemalan genocide, the mass killings of Maya civilians during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), for which Guatemala’s former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt was tried and convicted in 2013, but whose sentence was then annulled in the same year.
“Tremors,” to be released by Memento Films Distribution in France and sold worldwide by Film Factory, takes place in Guatemala City and tells the story of an evangelical Christian and father of two children, Pablo, who falls in love with another man, and then faces the risk of losing the...
It will be produced by his company, La Casa de Producción. “La Llorona” – starring Maria Mercedes Caroy and María Telón, the lead actresses of “Ixcanul” – is about the Guatemalan genocide, the mass killings of Maya civilians during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), for which Guatemala’s former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt was tried and convicted in 2013, but whose sentence was then annulled in the same year.
“Tremors,” to be released by Memento Films Distribution in France and sold worldwide by Film Factory, takes place in Guatemala City and tells the story of an evangelical Christian and father of two children, Pablo, who falls in love with another man, and then faces the risk of losing the...
- 4/10/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Every week, a bevy of new releases (independent or otherwise), open in theaters. That’s why we created the Weekly Film Guide, filled with basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.
For August, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for August 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, August 19. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ben-Hur
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Nazanin Boniadi, Rodrigo Santoro, Toby Kebbell
Synopsis: The epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title,...
For August, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for August 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, August 19. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ben-Hur
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Nazanin Boniadi, Rodrigo Santoro, Toby Kebbell
Synopsis: The epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother Messala (Toby Kebbell), an officer in the Roman army. Stripped of his title,...
- 8/19/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
"Ixcanul" is Guatemala's Official Submission in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards. Isa: Film Factory Entertainment. U.S. Distributor: Kino Lorber
Ingrained millenary practices and forbidding modern concerns unfold simultaneously against the backdrop of dark volcanic stone, colorful attires, rural duties, and perpetual mysticism, in a film that’s as aesthetically exquisite as it’s gruelingly bold in its quest to be fueled by unrestrained reality. Jayro Bustamante’s “Ixcanul” is an ethereal masterpiece whose breathtaking beauty is layered with sociopolitical undertones while always honoring the indigenous people at its center and, more specifically, its women's unwavering and restrained strength waiting to be unleashed.
This profoundly affecting story follows Maria (María Mercedes Coroy), a Kaqchikel Mayan young woman, who lives with her parents near in the outskirts of a volcano near a coffee plantation. This land, its scent, its colors, and its people are all she’s ever known and all she’s ever wanted until now. When an arranged marriage threatens to put an end to her apparent freedom, Maria considers the possibility of venturing far from home and seeing what’s beyond the mountains, but her naïve eagerness to escape will place her in the crossfire between romantic betrayal, dangerous rituals, and the unwelcoming urban world.
Bustamante juxtaposes Maria’s unnerving coming of age story with her mother Juana’s (María Telón) efforts to salvage the family’s future by abiding by tradition. Within these two parallel experiences there is an urgency to bring attention to the vulnerability of Guatemala’s Mayan population who are rarely given a voice.“Ixcanul” is a fierce artistic triumph coated with complexity, subtle poetry, and a delicate ability for capturing its characters’ introspective dilemmas through its imagery. Such showcase of attuned sensibilities is expected from a seasoned auteur at the peak of his creative powers, but Jayro Bustamante has accomplished just that with his astonishing debut feature. No wonder “Ixcanul” is Guatemala’s most acclaimed film ever and the winner of numerous international awards including the Alfred Bauer Award at the Berlin International Film festival.
We talked to Bustamante about the his relationship to the Mayan community where the film was shot, the male chauvinist societies that hinder women’s growth, his homeland’s institutionalize discrimination against indigenous people, and the incomparable visual allure of “Ixcanul.”
Kino Lorber will release "Ixcanul" in early 2016.
Carlos Aguilar: The film focuses on these two women who are every strong in distinct ways; however, they are faced with extraordinary circumstances that test that strength. How did the idea to write a story about these two connected characters come about?
Jayro Bustamante: The idea was born from a real story, the story of a real Maria. What’s really inspired in her life is the third act, the problematic situation with the baby. Based on that I started to create this fictional screenplay but always grounded on real things that I had seen in Guatemala. I grew up in that region and I asked myself, “How does one become the perfect victim?” just as Maria is in the film. That’s how I started building this story. I had two very clear themes I wanted to work on: one was loss and the other maternity. In order for the loss and that sort of prohibition to become a mother that is imposed on Maria to feel as powerful as they do in the movie, I needed to construct a kind of maternity that was beautiful, without idealizing it but highlighting it. That’s why I created the relationship between these two women. Throughout the process I always worked with the actresses as if the two characters were one. We always thought that Maria, if she had been given the chance, would have become Juana. She would have been just as strong as her. That’s how we worked on these two characters.
While Juana is the matriarch and often appears to be charge, she still lives in a male-driven society where her needs and desires are secondary to those of the men around. Was it important for you to depict the internal strength of these Mayan women while also being honest about the world they live in?
Jayro Bustamante: From the beginning my intention was to adhere to reality, except for the magical realist touches that I also wanted the film to have because they were very important. Magical realism doesn’t work if the real reality doesn’t exist. There is a great contradiction in male chauvinist societies, and that is that they are usually composed of matriarchal groups. A woman reigns but she always reigns in a small space that the man left for her. She reigns when the man needs someone to be in charge of things that he doesn’t want to take care of. For me that matriarchy is till is part of this male chauvinism or "machismo" and that matriarchy continues to feed it. If I’m against male chauvinism, I should also be against matriarchy because both extremes are bad and one is derived from the other.
What I really wanted to demonstrate was that there is a waste of feminine energy that happens in male chauvinist societies.To get from point A to point B, a woman has to embark on an incredible journey through everything that’s in between these two points and have a great strategy to be able to get there. This journey would be so much easier if we would let her take those steps and then with her own strength she can get wherever she wants to go. I wanted to talk about that strength and that’s why there is that parallel relationship between Maria and the volcano. There is something symbolic about it. For me, Mayan women in Guatemala today are like that volcano that rumbles and resounds but hasn’t yet erupted. Real change will happen when these women erupt and release what they have inside. That’s the metaphor we wanted to convey, the connection between these women and the volcano.
One of the greatest achievements of the film is that it refrains from observing the characters from an ethnographic perspective or with an air of exoticism. These are people. Yes, people with different traditions and experiences from what many consider normal, but they are still as human as anybody else.
Jayro Bustamante: Definitely. I never had that temptation or that perspective because I grew up there, so for me there is no difference between us. I wouldn’t do it with any other culture. That’s something I can’t understand, to think there are people that one can observe like if they were in a zoo. I don’t think that’s right. Rich cultural differences show us the diversity that exists in the world, but if you explore any of these differences you’ll see that we all have the same human feelings. That’s what allowed me to make a story that was very local but that at the same time could have certain international repercussion. I wrote a film about a woman whose problems take us into the problems of a family and that in turn takes us into the larger social problems. That’s what we wanted to do from the beginnings. That can’t be done if the feelings that belong to the universal language are not present.
Indigenous languages are rarely used in modern cinema and because of this indigenous people have in a sense become both faceless and voiceless. How crucial was it for you to make the film in the Mayan language?
Jayro Bustamante: It was very important. Perhaps there is a bit of melancholy because as I said I grew up there. I had a nanny that taught me a lot of things, a lot of traditional stories, and who also taught me that language when I was a young child. Maybe this melancholy is there, but above all this, language is the clearest example to demonstrate how a large portion of the country lives without the tools to grow and evolve in its own country. They are foreigners in their own country, but they are the majority. Today statistics say that these people represent only 40% of the Guatemalan population, but that’s a lie. Discrimination is so strong that if you are Mayan and during the census or on a survey they ask you, “Are you Mayan?” you prefer to say that you are mestizo or mixed because you are ashamed to say who you really are. The social fracture is so big that in Guatemala the worse insult you can tell somebody is calling him or her an “Indian.”
Something similar happens in Mexico, where I'm from. People tend to associate indigenous languages, features, or traditions with negative ideas or as something that's less sophisticated or worthy, which is terrible.
Jayro Bustamante: When you think about it, if the worse insult is to be who you are, even if you are the majority in a country, it means that the majority of the country has a terrible complex regarding their identity. If you are trying to improve yourself or overcome this circumstances, these ideas make very complicated emotionally. There are many themes that we touch on in the film that are derived from discrimination. When I travel abroad I get asked a lot, “Why does Pepe want to go to the Us?” Maybe you and I can understand why this young man wants to leave. The reason why he wants to leave is obvious to those of us who are from countries like Mexico and Guatemala. He earns one dollar a day in Guatemala and in the U.S. he could earn, let’s say, $15 an hour. It’s true that in the U.S. he could be discriminated for being Latino, but he is already being discriminated in Guatemala, his own country, because his Mayan. He has a lot more to win than to lose by leaving. That’s very sad.
Tell me about the process of finding your actors and how challenging this was. You evidently needed people who were Mayan and who spoke the language, but also that could pull off the intricate performances the film required.
Jayro Bustamante: That was the most beautiful part of the process, to work with the actors. I started hosting workshops, more regarding social issues, in the place were I grew up. I grew up in the outskirts of the Atitlán Lake in the highlands, which is a volcanic lake. It’s about two hours away from the location where we were going to shoot. I was accompanied by a social worker. The idea was to open spaces to discuss the problems facing the Mayan community so that the social worker could hear their concerns and follow up. This would help me enrich the screenplay and find the actresses there.
In a way this also reflected the reality of the country, although there were many women that were interested in working with me, there were also many of them that didn’t want to be part of the project. I thought all of them would want to, but I was wrong, a lot of them didn’t. Those that I wanted to work with and that wanted to work with me had another problem. Their husbands, their brother, their sons, or any other male in charge wouldn’t give them permissions to participate. They couldn’t come be part of the project because they had to stay home to serve them.
While this was happening and we were trying to figure things out, I met Maria Telón, who plays Juana. She is part of a street theater group. It’s a militant theater group that advocates for indigenous rights and women rights. They were putting on a play at that time, and I started following her performances from town to town. When we finally got to her community, I discovered that this community is very prosperous and very curious about the arts. I decided to stay there to do the casting. We held auditions at the local market. We set up our own stand among fruits and vegetable stands and we put up a sign that said, “Casting.” We had a camera and a notepad. Nobody came.
The next day we change the sign to, “Help Wanted,” and the entire town came. Thanks to that we were able to meet everyone in town and that’s where we cast the actors. We worked with them for threes months before filming the first scene. It was a very enriching process because besides the fact that they were Kaqchikel Mayans they had nothing in common with the characters. They live in a very prosperous society with all the basic services. Maria Mercedes is a student and Maria Telón is an actress and a saleswoman. She has a very different life form the character of the mother. Manuel Antún, the man who played Maria’s father, is a dentist, and Marvin Coroy, the guy who plays El Pepe, is a poet. We really did a lot of work to characterize this family so they could really look like a family and like they live in this very different situation.
Once you had cast them, what was your approach to eliciting the emotions you wanted from the actors. María Mercedes Coroy's performance in particular is very quiet but marvelously moving.
Jayro Bustamante: We didn’t have a particular technique. We worked a lot on trusting one another. With Maria Mercedes we worked on her confidence as a woman. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a confident woman, but we talked a lot about the strength that she had within herself. She was worried about playing a character that might falsely seem passive. It’s not that the character is passive, but on paper it might seem that way because everything is internalized. I believe this is one of the hardest types of characters to bring to life. We also worked on the power of her gaze. She allowed me to explore her personal life and her past in order to find in her own experiences emotions she could use while we were shooting. One week we decided to kiss tress. We went to a forest and we decided to kiss trees. She started kissing tress on one side of the forest and I did it in the other. In the end we ended up kissing the same one [Laughs]. It was about earning each other trust and losing all shame.
Visually the film is absolutely breathtaking. There is the natural beauty of the locations and a very evocative atmosphere throughout the entire film. How did you and your Dp, Luis Armando Arteaga, approach to the cinematography and minimalist aesthetic of the story, which is definitely a fantastic element of "Ixcanul"?
Jayro Bustamante: We’ve known each other for along time. We worked together on my last short film and we have developed other projects together. He is someone who has a vision of cinema that goes beyond that of a Dp. We did something very interesting, which was to go to a festival that’s sort of like the Cannes Film Festival for short films. It’s called Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. We were there for a week watching all the short films. Our interest was to watch as many as possible because filmmakers are more daring when making short films. There are new technologies that they are willing to try on short films and there is less financial risk. You can watch a lot of them in a short period of time. A big part of our job was watching these short films.
After that we talked a lot about the trap that this location could be because it’s a really beautiful location. You can drop your camera by accident and the photo that’s taken is already a postcard. Of course, I’m exaggerating but it’s really that beautiful. We talked about finding that postcard-like image and getting as far away from it as possible. We wanted to stay within the characters’ intimacy. We both really wanted to shoot it on 16mm, and we couldn’t because of financial constraints, so we shot it on a digital camera. Since we shot on digital, we did a lot of work to create that grainy quality that film gives you. We used the volcano’s dust and a lot of smoke. We had someone who would create smoke for every scene. Every single scene you see in the film had smoke, in varying densities, but they all had smoke. Then we were able to do the post-production in France in one of the best studios, which was amazing.
There is a certain mysticism to the story that we see through several rituals and this community's connection to nature, and the volcano in particular. Tell me about including these otherworldly beliefs and spiritual offerings in the narrative. Why did you feel they were an important characteristic of this society?
Jayro Bustamante: All of these elements are things that I’ve seen myself or that still exist. In terms of the mysticism, for me, instead of trying to tell a spiritual story I wanted to tell a purely religious story. There is a Mayan religion today that’s a mix between Catholicism and the Mayan beliefs that remained after the Spanish empire fell. My characters live in a grave situation, one in which the only thing they do is try resolve their multiple problems. That’s why whenever a new problem arrives they act in such a tolerant manner, because they can’t add fuel to the fire. What they have to do is put it out. When you are in situations like these, normally human beings have the tendency to seek answers and hope in something bigger than them. If they were a Catholic family I would have focused on the Catholic religion. I wanted to also talk about the problem with religions. Religions are dogmas and rules represented by a leader that could lead you into the wrong path. This was the message. It was more of a religious message than a spiritual or Mayan message.
Regarding the rituals you see in the film, they are all based on rituals that are still being practiced today. Even us, before shooting we would lit a sacred fire to ask the volcano for permission. When we shot in the coffee plantation we also had a sacred fire there. It’s a very nice thing because you lit a fire and the ceremony lasts till the fire extinguishes by itself. It’s the fire that tells you when the ceremony is over. In the meantime you are sharing energy with the people around you. You tell the earth what you are going to be doing there. It’s about communicating and about the energy flow. When the fire is out you end up way too relaxed, so we started substituting the sacred fires for the yoga exercises. [Laughs]. It’s very interesting and it’s something that’s still done all the time.
In the final act you take your characters out of their community and expose them to urban Guatemala. In that moment these two worlds seem to clash and how little their know about each other.
Jayro Bustamante: The film was constructed in crescendo from the beginning. I was lucky enough to conceive the ending very early on in the process and because of this I started working backwards towards the beginning of the story. Instead of wanting to say, “Oh poor indigenous people” or “Wow these westerners are terrible,” what I wanted to talk about was the lack of social tools they have and how in this country a large segment of the population is left without basic services. Well, in Guatemala today even people who have all the tools and resources can still be left without the basic services because politicians stole all the money and nothing is working. But for indigenous people things are even worse. They are even lower in the list of the government’s priorities. That was the intention behind taking the characters out of their environment and into the city.
Has the film started a conversation or a dialogue regarding about discrimination and other issues currently affecting this segment of the population and Guatemala in general?
Jayro Bustamante: Yes, I’m really amazed about it. When I started speaking to the press in Guatemala about the film, I said that Guatemalans needed to learn how to watch films because it appeared to me that people were unable to analyze films. When “Ixcanul” opened in movie theaters it became a small success considering that it’s an art house film. We were in theaters for 7 weeks, which was great. After that, I found a lot reviews and articles about the film written by Guatemalans. These were profound analyzes and very well written.
Some were very self-critical regarding the country’s situation. I realized that I was wrong, Guatemalans are able to do these analyzes, but they get to see very few films that warrant it. You are not going to write a profound analysis about “Fast and Furious,” there is not much to analyze there. You watch it and you talk about it candidly, but you don’t spend much time thinking about an American blockbuster. That was very surprising and very gratifying for me, to see that people in Guatemala wrote criticism and self-analyze the country through the film. Soon after the film’s premier one of the most important newspapers in Guatemala published an article entitled, Ixcanul is a Slap on Guatemala’s Face. The journalist wrote about the country’s current social situation in relation to the film.
When you are in another country does it surprise you that perhaps your film is the first contact people abroad have with Guatemala as a country and even more so with its cinema? "Ixcanul" is by far the most talked about and the most internationally acclaimed Guatemalan film ever.
Jayro Bustamante: No, it doesn’t surprise me that we are not a very well known country or that we are country only known because of the difficult political situations we are going through. It doesn’t surprise me because we as a country haven’t done anything for this to be different. Everything we’ve done prompted people outside to see us just the way they see us. It’s what we deserve in a sense. We are also a very small country. When it comes to tourism we are very interesting country, but we are very small country that has been in an arm conflict for so long that obviously tourists don’t come. Then there are all the problems with the gangs, cartels, kidnappings, and all the other bad things you can think of.
It’s understandable that we are not well known. At first I believed that the point of entry could be the Mayan civilization because I thought that would be well known abroad, and I’ve realized that not so much. There is still a lot to teach and share about Guatemala with the world, which is good. Something that I still find especially surprising is this idea that the Mayans disappeared or vanished. It’s crazy to me that people still believe that, but I can understand why. It’s very interesting to me that people around world, even in places as far as Japan, connect with the emotions that the film exudes. That’s the nicest compliment. I’ve also had people in other countries tell me, “You are the firs Guatemalan I’ve ever seen.” I tell them, “Touch me! I’m real” [Laughs].
Kino Lorber will release "Ixcanul" in early 2016.
Ingrained millenary practices and forbidding modern concerns unfold simultaneously against the backdrop of dark volcanic stone, colorful attires, rural duties, and perpetual mysticism, in a film that’s as aesthetically exquisite as it’s gruelingly bold in its quest to be fueled by unrestrained reality. Jayro Bustamante’s “Ixcanul” is an ethereal masterpiece whose breathtaking beauty is layered with sociopolitical undertones while always honoring the indigenous people at its center and, more specifically, its women's unwavering and restrained strength waiting to be unleashed.
This profoundly affecting story follows Maria (María Mercedes Coroy), a Kaqchikel Mayan young woman, who lives with her parents near in the outskirts of a volcano near a coffee plantation. This land, its scent, its colors, and its people are all she’s ever known and all she’s ever wanted until now. When an arranged marriage threatens to put an end to her apparent freedom, Maria considers the possibility of venturing far from home and seeing what’s beyond the mountains, but her naïve eagerness to escape will place her in the crossfire between romantic betrayal, dangerous rituals, and the unwelcoming urban world.
Bustamante juxtaposes Maria’s unnerving coming of age story with her mother Juana’s (María Telón) efforts to salvage the family’s future by abiding by tradition. Within these two parallel experiences there is an urgency to bring attention to the vulnerability of Guatemala’s Mayan population who are rarely given a voice.“Ixcanul” is a fierce artistic triumph coated with complexity, subtle poetry, and a delicate ability for capturing its characters’ introspective dilemmas through its imagery. Such showcase of attuned sensibilities is expected from a seasoned auteur at the peak of his creative powers, but Jayro Bustamante has accomplished just that with his astonishing debut feature. No wonder “Ixcanul” is Guatemala’s most acclaimed film ever and the winner of numerous international awards including the Alfred Bauer Award at the Berlin International Film festival.
We talked to Bustamante about the his relationship to the Mayan community where the film was shot, the male chauvinist societies that hinder women’s growth, his homeland’s institutionalize discrimination against indigenous people, and the incomparable visual allure of “Ixcanul.”
Kino Lorber will release "Ixcanul" in early 2016.
Carlos Aguilar: The film focuses on these two women who are every strong in distinct ways; however, they are faced with extraordinary circumstances that test that strength. How did the idea to write a story about these two connected characters come about?
Jayro Bustamante: The idea was born from a real story, the story of a real Maria. What’s really inspired in her life is the third act, the problematic situation with the baby. Based on that I started to create this fictional screenplay but always grounded on real things that I had seen in Guatemala. I grew up in that region and I asked myself, “How does one become the perfect victim?” just as Maria is in the film. That’s how I started building this story. I had two very clear themes I wanted to work on: one was loss and the other maternity. In order for the loss and that sort of prohibition to become a mother that is imposed on Maria to feel as powerful as they do in the movie, I needed to construct a kind of maternity that was beautiful, without idealizing it but highlighting it. That’s why I created the relationship between these two women. Throughout the process I always worked with the actresses as if the two characters were one. We always thought that Maria, if she had been given the chance, would have become Juana. She would have been just as strong as her. That’s how we worked on these two characters.
While Juana is the matriarch and often appears to be charge, she still lives in a male-driven society where her needs and desires are secondary to those of the men around. Was it important for you to depict the internal strength of these Mayan women while also being honest about the world they live in?
Jayro Bustamante: From the beginning my intention was to adhere to reality, except for the magical realist touches that I also wanted the film to have because they were very important. Magical realism doesn’t work if the real reality doesn’t exist. There is a great contradiction in male chauvinist societies, and that is that they are usually composed of matriarchal groups. A woman reigns but she always reigns in a small space that the man left for her. She reigns when the man needs someone to be in charge of things that he doesn’t want to take care of. For me that matriarchy is till is part of this male chauvinism or "machismo" and that matriarchy continues to feed it. If I’m against male chauvinism, I should also be against matriarchy because both extremes are bad and one is derived from the other.
What I really wanted to demonstrate was that there is a waste of feminine energy that happens in male chauvinist societies.To get from point A to point B, a woman has to embark on an incredible journey through everything that’s in between these two points and have a great strategy to be able to get there. This journey would be so much easier if we would let her take those steps and then with her own strength she can get wherever she wants to go. I wanted to talk about that strength and that’s why there is that parallel relationship between Maria and the volcano. There is something symbolic about it. For me, Mayan women in Guatemala today are like that volcano that rumbles and resounds but hasn’t yet erupted. Real change will happen when these women erupt and release what they have inside. That’s the metaphor we wanted to convey, the connection between these women and the volcano.
One of the greatest achievements of the film is that it refrains from observing the characters from an ethnographic perspective or with an air of exoticism. These are people. Yes, people with different traditions and experiences from what many consider normal, but they are still as human as anybody else.
Jayro Bustamante: Definitely. I never had that temptation or that perspective because I grew up there, so for me there is no difference between us. I wouldn’t do it with any other culture. That’s something I can’t understand, to think there are people that one can observe like if they were in a zoo. I don’t think that’s right. Rich cultural differences show us the diversity that exists in the world, but if you explore any of these differences you’ll see that we all have the same human feelings. That’s what allowed me to make a story that was very local but that at the same time could have certain international repercussion. I wrote a film about a woman whose problems take us into the problems of a family and that in turn takes us into the larger social problems. That’s what we wanted to do from the beginnings. That can’t be done if the feelings that belong to the universal language are not present.
Indigenous languages are rarely used in modern cinema and because of this indigenous people have in a sense become both faceless and voiceless. How crucial was it for you to make the film in the Mayan language?
Jayro Bustamante: It was very important. Perhaps there is a bit of melancholy because as I said I grew up there. I had a nanny that taught me a lot of things, a lot of traditional stories, and who also taught me that language when I was a young child. Maybe this melancholy is there, but above all this, language is the clearest example to demonstrate how a large portion of the country lives without the tools to grow and evolve in its own country. They are foreigners in their own country, but they are the majority. Today statistics say that these people represent only 40% of the Guatemalan population, but that’s a lie. Discrimination is so strong that if you are Mayan and during the census or on a survey they ask you, “Are you Mayan?” you prefer to say that you are mestizo or mixed because you are ashamed to say who you really are. The social fracture is so big that in Guatemala the worse insult you can tell somebody is calling him or her an “Indian.”
Something similar happens in Mexico, where I'm from. People tend to associate indigenous languages, features, or traditions with negative ideas or as something that's less sophisticated or worthy, which is terrible.
Jayro Bustamante: When you think about it, if the worse insult is to be who you are, even if you are the majority in a country, it means that the majority of the country has a terrible complex regarding their identity. If you are trying to improve yourself or overcome this circumstances, these ideas make very complicated emotionally. There are many themes that we touch on in the film that are derived from discrimination. When I travel abroad I get asked a lot, “Why does Pepe want to go to the Us?” Maybe you and I can understand why this young man wants to leave. The reason why he wants to leave is obvious to those of us who are from countries like Mexico and Guatemala. He earns one dollar a day in Guatemala and in the U.S. he could earn, let’s say, $15 an hour. It’s true that in the U.S. he could be discriminated for being Latino, but he is already being discriminated in Guatemala, his own country, because his Mayan. He has a lot more to win than to lose by leaving. That’s very sad.
Tell me about the process of finding your actors and how challenging this was. You evidently needed people who were Mayan and who spoke the language, but also that could pull off the intricate performances the film required.
Jayro Bustamante: That was the most beautiful part of the process, to work with the actors. I started hosting workshops, more regarding social issues, in the place were I grew up. I grew up in the outskirts of the Atitlán Lake in the highlands, which is a volcanic lake. It’s about two hours away from the location where we were going to shoot. I was accompanied by a social worker. The idea was to open spaces to discuss the problems facing the Mayan community so that the social worker could hear their concerns and follow up. This would help me enrich the screenplay and find the actresses there.
In a way this also reflected the reality of the country, although there were many women that were interested in working with me, there were also many of them that didn’t want to be part of the project. I thought all of them would want to, but I was wrong, a lot of them didn’t. Those that I wanted to work with and that wanted to work with me had another problem. Their husbands, their brother, their sons, or any other male in charge wouldn’t give them permissions to participate. They couldn’t come be part of the project because they had to stay home to serve them.
While this was happening and we were trying to figure things out, I met Maria Telón, who plays Juana. She is part of a street theater group. It’s a militant theater group that advocates for indigenous rights and women rights. They were putting on a play at that time, and I started following her performances from town to town. When we finally got to her community, I discovered that this community is very prosperous and very curious about the arts. I decided to stay there to do the casting. We held auditions at the local market. We set up our own stand among fruits and vegetable stands and we put up a sign that said, “Casting.” We had a camera and a notepad. Nobody came.
The next day we change the sign to, “Help Wanted,” and the entire town came. Thanks to that we were able to meet everyone in town and that’s where we cast the actors. We worked with them for threes months before filming the first scene. It was a very enriching process because besides the fact that they were Kaqchikel Mayans they had nothing in common with the characters. They live in a very prosperous society with all the basic services. Maria Mercedes is a student and Maria Telón is an actress and a saleswoman. She has a very different life form the character of the mother. Manuel Antún, the man who played Maria’s father, is a dentist, and Marvin Coroy, the guy who plays El Pepe, is a poet. We really did a lot of work to characterize this family so they could really look like a family and like they live in this very different situation.
Once you had cast them, what was your approach to eliciting the emotions you wanted from the actors. María Mercedes Coroy's performance in particular is very quiet but marvelously moving.
Jayro Bustamante: We didn’t have a particular technique. We worked a lot on trusting one another. With Maria Mercedes we worked on her confidence as a woman. It wasn’t that she wasn’t a confident woman, but we talked a lot about the strength that she had within herself. She was worried about playing a character that might falsely seem passive. It’s not that the character is passive, but on paper it might seem that way because everything is internalized. I believe this is one of the hardest types of characters to bring to life. We also worked on the power of her gaze. She allowed me to explore her personal life and her past in order to find in her own experiences emotions she could use while we were shooting. One week we decided to kiss tress. We went to a forest and we decided to kiss trees. She started kissing tress on one side of the forest and I did it in the other. In the end we ended up kissing the same one [Laughs]. It was about earning each other trust and losing all shame.
Visually the film is absolutely breathtaking. There is the natural beauty of the locations and a very evocative atmosphere throughout the entire film. How did you and your Dp, Luis Armando Arteaga, approach to the cinematography and minimalist aesthetic of the story, which is definitely a fantastic element of "Ixcanul"?
Jayro Bustamante: We’ve known each other for along time. We worked together on my last short film and we have developed other projects together. He is someone who has a vision of cinema that goes beyond that of a Dp. We did something very interesting, which was to go to a festival that’s sort of like the Cannes Film Festival for short films. It’s called Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. We were there for a week watching all the short films. Our interest was to watch as many as possible because filmmakers are more daring when making short films. There are new technologies that they are willing to try on short films and there is less financial risk. You can watch a lot of them in a short period of time. A big part of our job was watching these short films.
After that we talked a lot about the trap that this location could be because it’s a really beautiful location. You can drop your camera by accident and the photo that’s taken is already a postcard. Of course, I’m exaggerating but it’s really that beautiful. We talked about finding that postcard-like image and getting as far away from it as possible. We wanted to stay within the characters’ intimacy. We both really wanted to shoot it on 16mm, and we couldn’t because of financial constraints, so we shot it on a digital camera. Since we shot on digital, we did a lot of work to create that grainy quality that film gives you. We used the volcano’s dust and a lot of smoke. We had someone who would create smoke for every scene. Every single scene you see in the film had smoke, in varying densities, but they all had smoke. Then we were able to do the post-production in France in one of the best studios, which was amazing.
There is a certain mysticism to the story that we see through several rituals and this community's connection to nature, and the volcano in particular. Tell me about including these otherworldly beliefs and spiritual offerings in the narrative. Why did you feel they were an important characteristic of this society?
Jayro Bustamante: All of these elements are things that I’ve seen myself or that still exist. In terms of the mysticism, for me, instead of trying to tell a spiritual story I wanted to tell a purely religious story. There is a Mayan religion today that’s a mix between Catholicism and the Mayan beliefs that remained after the Spanish empire fell. My characters live in a grave situation, one in which the only thing they do is try resolve their multiple problems. That’s why whenever a new problem arrives they act in such a tolerant manner, because they can’t add fuel to the fire. What they have to do is put it out. When you are in situations like these, normally human beings have the tendency to seek answers and hope in something bigger than them. If they were a Catholic family I would have focused on the Catholic religion. I wanted to also talk about the problem with religions. Religions are dogmas and rules represented by a leader that could lead you into the wrong path. This was the message. It was more of a religious message than a spiritual or Mayan message.
Regarding the rituals you see in the film, they are all based on rituals that are still being practiced today. Even us, before shooting we would lit a sacred fire to ask the volcano for permission. When we shot in the coffee plantation we also had a sacred fire there. It’s a very nice thing because you lit a fire and the ceremony lasts till the fire extinguishes by itself. It’s the fire that tells you when the ceremony is over. In the meantime you are sharing energy with the people around you. You tell the earth what you are going to be doing there. It’s about communicating and about the energy flow. When the fire is out you end up way too relaxed, so we started substituting the sacred fires for the yoga exercises. [Laughs]. It’s very interesting and it’s something that’s still done all the time.
In the final act you take your characters out of their community and expose them to urban Guatemala. In that moment these two worlds seem to clash and how little their know about each other.
Jayro Bustamante: The film was constructed in crescendo from the beginning. I was lucky enough to conceive the ending very early on in the process and because of this I started working backwards towards the beginning of the story. Instead of wanting to say, “Oh poor indigenous people” or “Wow these westerners are terrible,” what I wanted to talk about was the lack of social tools they have and how in this country a large segment of the population is left without basic services. Well, in Guatemala today even people who have all the tools and resources can still be left without the basic services because politicians stole all the money and nothing is working. But for indigenous people things are even worse. They are even lower in the list of the government’s priorities. That was the intention behind taking the characters out of their environment and into the city.
Has the film started a conversation or a dialogue regarding about discrimination and other issues currently affecting this segment of the population and Guatemala in general?
Jayro Bustamante: Yes, I’m really amazed about it. When I started speaking to the press in Guatemala about the film, I said that Guatemalans needed to learn how to watch films because it appeared to me that people were unable to analyze films. When “Ixcanul” opened in movie theaters it became a small success considering that it’s an art house film. We were in theaters for 7 weeks, which was great. After that, I found a lot reviews and articles about the film written by Guatemalans. These were profound analyzes and very well written.
Some were very self-critical regarding the country’s situation. I realized that I was wrong, Guatemalans are able to do these analyzes, but they get to see very few films that warrant it. You are not going to write a profound analysis about “Fast and Furious,” there is not much to analyze there. You watch it and you talk about it candidly, but you don’t spend much time thinking about an American blockbuster. That was very surprising and very gratifying for me, to see that people in Guatemala wrote criticism and self-analyze the country through the film. Soon after the film’s premier one of the most important newspapers in Guatemala published an article entitled, Ixcanul is a Slap on Guatemala’s Face. The journalist wrote about the country’s current social situation in relation to the film.
When you are in another country does it surprise you that perhaps your film is the first contact people abroad have with Guatemala as a country and even more so with its cinema? "Ixcanul" is by far the most talked about and the most internationally acclaimed Guatemalan film ever.
Jayro Bustamante: No, it doesn’t surprise me that we are not a very well known country or that we are country only known because of the difficult political situations we are going through. It doesn’t surprise me because we as a country haven’t done anything for this to be different. Everything we’ve done prompted people outside to see us just the way they see us. It’s what we deserve in a sense. We are also a very small country. When it comes to tourism we are very interesting country, but we are very small country that has been in an arm conflict for so long that obviously tourists don’t come. Then there are all the problems with the gangs, cartels, kidnappings, and all the other bad things you can think of.
It’s understandable that we are not well known. At first I believed that the point of entry could be the Mayan civilization because I thought that would be well known abroad, and I’ve realized that not so much. There is still a lot to teach and share about Guatemala with the world, which is good. Something that I still find especially surprising is this idea that the Mayans disappeared or vanished. It’s crazy to me that people still believe that, but I can understand why. It’s very interesting to me that people around world, even in places as far as Japan, connect with the emotions that the film exudes. That’s the nicest compliment. I’ve also had people in other countries tell me, “You are the firs Guatemalan I’ve ever seen.” I tell them, “Touch me! I’m real” [Laughs].
Kino Lorber will release "Ixcanul" in early 2016.
- 12/1/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
A pair of sections that we’ve been covering almost since its inception, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their selections for the New Auteurs and American Independents line-ups and we’ve got a noteworthy, eyebrow-raising sampling of award-winning items from the Cannes played hellish immigration drama Mediterranea from Jonas Carpignano to Sundance (Josh Mond’s James White) to SXSW (Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha) winners. Since Park City days, our Nicholas Bell has reviewed a good chunk of these titles, but we’ll still likely have a couple of more reviews once the festival begins. Here are the selections and jury members.
New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)
From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere
Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...
New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)
From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere
Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...
- 10/15/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
’’There are stories that you can’t let go of, that bind you when you stumble across them and it’s necessary that they are told to untie a little bit of the history.’’
LatinoBuzz spoke to 37-year old Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante about his first feature film, "Ixcanul." The film recently received the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at Berlinale for a film that "opens new perspectives on cinematic art," making it the first film from Guatemala to ever do so. Its success at Berlin proved to be a good omen for Bustamante when Ixcanul was awarded the Mayahuel prize for Best Latin American film and Best Director at the 30th International Film Festival of Guadalajara in México. "Ixcanul" is the story about María, a 17 year-old Mayan Kaqchikel girl that lives with her parents in a coffee plantation on the side of an active volcano in Guatemala. Her hand in marriage has been promised to Ignacio while her heart is with perpetual dreamer Pepe. Despite being an indigenous woman, María will try to change her destiny and believes the modern world she had always dreamt of will save her life.
Latinobuzz: Where was the idea born to write "Ixcanul"? Why did you want to tell this story?
Jayro: It was born from the meeting with María, the real María. "Ixcanul" is a story extracted from the real life facts of this character, there is a large quantity of fiction, but the problem, the cherry-on-top, of the film’s drama comes from Maria’s life, and when I met her I found out that I was standing in front of a person who was in a completely powerless, but at the same time she was carrying a special wisdom to be able to live beyond that. This was the beginning stages.
LatinoBuzz: Ixcanul means the force inside the volcano…
Jayro: Yes, Ixcanul means volcano. The Mayan languages are conceptual and the concept is this force that boils within and that just wants to release and explode.
LatinoBuzz: You, yourself as a filmmaker, what do you think is this inner force is that compels you to tell stories?
Jayro: It is something that I have always liked doing and there are stories that you can’t let go of, that bind you when you stumble across them and it’s necessary that they are told to untie a little bit of the history.
LatinoBuzz: Tell me a little bit about the actors, I understand you used people from the community where you filmed, how was directing non-professional actors? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Jayro: There wasn’t a desire to use non actors. I began looking and I found out that there weren’t many actors, especially ‘’Cachiqueles’’ - they are very few. One of the big Cachiqueles actresses from Guatemala is María Telón, who played the ‘’Juana’’ role, she is part of a street theater group that is quite politically active for women’s rights and the indigenous people. She was a professional actress and the rest of the casting we used other actors that worked in theater and the people that weren’t actors we found through a casting that we did at a market place. The truth is that I never made the comparison if they had been professional or not, I simply respected what experience they had or not. We came up with a technique for everyone and that was the one that gave us the result on screen. I’m very satisfied with the work of the actors.
LatinoBuzz: What challenges did you face during the shoot?
Jayro: All! All the challenges! It was really very, very precarious work, We were shooting in an active volcano. The volcano did erupt and we had to evacuate. We also didn’t have water either nor much electricity. Really they all were challenges. We were completely multicultural, there were people of all nationalities, but in the end I believe that despite all these obstacles there was also a fuerza, - there wasn’t really an obstacle that was stopping us or that was causing us to change strategy. Instead they were obstacles that were served for us to construct our own plan and that’s what we did.
LatinoBuzz: How did the financing of the film happen?
Jayro: It was complicated because Guatemala has no funds, no aids and people still don’t have awareness that cinema can be important, not only for the people who make film, but for an entire country, for an entire industry, for communication. We started the project personally funded with bank loans and really taking all the risks, This loan enabled us to reach the first cut but we still couldn’t finish the film. Then we partnered with a French company as a co-production and then we began to get international funds. Region Cinergia was one of the first that helped us out and then the other funds started coming together and we managed to finish it. We started to work in a precarious way and were lucky to be able to finish it in the best laboratorios with the best team that helped me very much that in the end I have to emphasize on all the hard work my team did.
LatinoBuzz: What is the current state of film in Guatemala?
Jayro: It’s in total state of emergency. There are many filmmakers wanting to make film, there are many doing so too. There is alot of generosity from the people but many complaints because there is no help. I do think that the problem beyond that there is no help, because you have to understand that when a place is so poor, you can’t ask the same money that you would in a country that is rich. The problem is that there is an indifference of the government towards the film industry, but I think it’s a normal thing because it’s a young industry and I think that’s the indifference, because they still haven’t realized that things are beginning to work. Now there are several films that are in the festival circuit and then there are films that aren't going to festivals but are doing well in theaters domestically in Guatemala. I think that people will start to wake up and realize it is a country that wants to do things, but just going slower because of the history we have.
LatinoBuzz: Approximately, how many films are made in Guatemala each year?
Jayro: From what I know personally, I would say that they should be between one and six films a year.
LatinoBuzz: And film schools?
Jayro: There is a film school that is also a production house and manages the only film festival that is internationally known. It is a pretty young but this school is quite important because it is like, the sole focus of cinema in the country. Now there are more people graduating, there are more people starting to support one another. All those waves will move something on the mainland at some point.
LatinoBuzz: What reception has "Ixcanul" received?
In Guatemala the reception was very generous, the press has also been very generous and people are waiting for the film. I don't know how many people and countries are waiting for the film, but those who come to talk to me haven’t insulted me yet but instead have come to congratulate me (laughs)!
Renee Ylizaliturri is an independent film and television producer from Mexico and is member of the Asociacion Mexicana de Cineastas Independientes. Part of her work is producing political campaigns as a media strategist and consultant. @Renylizaliturri
LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow[At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
LatinoBuzz spoke to 37-year old Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante about his first feature film, "Ixcanul." The film recently received the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at Berlinale for a film that "opens new perspectives on cinematic art," making it the first film from Guatemala to ever do so. Its success at Berlin proved to be a good omen for Bustamante when Ixcanul was awarded the Mayahuel prize for Best Latin American film and Best Director at the 30th International Film Festival of Guadalajara in México. "Ixcanul" is the story about María, a 17 year-old Mayan Kaqchikel girl that lives with her parents in a coffee plantation on the side of an active volcano in Guatemala. Her hand in marriage has been promised to Ignacio while her heart is with perpetual dreamer Pepe. Despite being an indigenous woman, María will try to change her destiny and believes the modern world she had always dreamt of will save her life.
Latinobuzz: Where was the idea born to write "Ixcanul"? Why did you want to tell this story?
Jayro: It was born from the meeting with María, the real María. "Ixcanul" is a story extracted from the real life facts of this character, there is a large quantity of fiction, but the problem, the cherry-on-top, of the film’s drama comes from Maria’s life, and when I met her I found out that I was standing in front of a person who was in a completely powerless, but at the same time she was carrying a special wisdom to be able to live beyond that. This was the beginning stages.
LatinoBuzz: Ixcanul means the force inside the volcano…
Jayro: Yes, Ixcanul means volcano. The Mayan languages are conceptual and the concept is this force that boils within and that just wants to release and explode.
LatinoBuzz: You, yourself as a filmmaker, what do you think is this inner force is that compels you to tell stories?
Jayro: It is something that I have always liked doing and there are stories that you can’t let go of, that bind you when you stumble across them and it’s necessary that they are told to untie a little bit of the history.
LatinoBuzz: Tell me a little bit about the actors, I understand you used people from the community where you filmed, how was directing non-professional actors? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Jayro: There wasn’t a desire to use non actors. I began looking and I found out that there weren’t many actors, especially ‘’Cachiqueles’’ - they are very few. One of the big Cachiqueles actresses from Guatemala is María Telón, who played the ‘’Juana’’ role, she is part of a street theater group that is quite politically active for women’s rights and the indigenous people. She was a professional actress and the rest of the casting we used other actors that worked in theater and the people that weren’t actors we found through a casting that we did at a market place. The truth is that I never made the comparison if they had been professional or not, I simply respected what experience they had or not. We came up with a technique for everyone and that was the one that gave us the result on screen. I’m very satisfied with the work of the actors.
LatinoBuzz: What challenges did you face during the shoot?
Jayro: All! All the challenges! It was really very, very precarious work, We were shooting in an active volcano. The volcano did erupt and we had to evacuate. We also didn’t have water either nor much electricity. Really they all were challenges. We were completely multicultural, there were people of all nationalities, but in the end I believe that despite all these obstacles there was also a fuerza, - there wasn’t really an obstacle that was stopping us or that was causing us to change strategy. Instead they were obstacles that were served for us to construct our own plan and that’s what we did.
LatinoBuzz: How did the financing of the film happen?
Jayro: It was complicated because Guatemala has no funds, no aids and people still don’t have awareness that cinema can be important, not only for the people who make film, but for an entire country, for an entire industry, for communication. We started the project personally funded with bank loans and really taking all the risks, This loan enabled us to reach the first cut but we still couldn’t finish the film. Then we partnered with a French company as a co-production and then we began to get international funds. Region Cinergia was one of the first that helped us out and then the other funds started coming together and we managed to finish it. We started to work in a precarious way and were lucky to be able to finish it in the best laboratorios with the best team that helped me very much that in the end I have to emphasize on all the hard work my team did.
LatinoBuzz: What is the current state of film in Guatemala?
Jayro: It’s in total state of emergency. There are many filmmakers wanting to make film, there are many doing so too. There is alot of generosity from the people but many complaints because there is no help. I do think that the problem beyond that there is no help, because you have to understand that when a place is so poor, you can’t ask the same money that you would in a country that is rich. The problem is that there is an indifference of the government towards the film industry, but I think it’s a normal thing because it’s a young industry and I think that’s the indifference, because they still haven’t realized that things are beginning to work. Now there are several films that are in the festival circuit and then there are films that aren't going to festivals but are doing well in theaters domestically in Guatemala. I think that people will start to wake up and realize it is a country that wants to do things, but just going slower because of the history we have.
LatinoBuzz: Approximately, how many films are made in Guatemala each year?
Jayro: From what I know personally, I would say that they should be between one and six films a year.
LatinoBuzz: And film schools?
Jayro: There is a film school that is also a production house and manages the only film festival that is internationally known. It is a pretty young but this school is quite important because it is like, the sole focus of cinema in the country. Now there are more people graduating, there are more people starting to support one another. All those waves will move something on the mainland at some point.
LatinoBuzz: What reception has "Ixcanul" received?
In Guatemala the reception was very generous, the press has also been very generous and people are waiting for the film. I don't know how many people and countries are waiting for the film, but those who come to talk to me haven’t insulted me yet but instead have come to congratulate me (laughs)!
Renee Ylizaliturri is an independent film and television producer from Mexico and is member of the Asociacion Mexicana de Cineastas Independientes. Part of her work is producing political campaigns as a media strategist and consultant. @Renylizaliturri
LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow[At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 3/18/2015
- by Renee Ylizaliturri
- Sydney's Buzz
The first paparazzi photos from Terrence Malick’s "Knight of Cups" surfaced in October 2012. Featuring Christian Bale and Natalie Portman playing in the ocean, it looked as poetic and narrative-less as anyone could hope from the "Badlands" and "Tree of Life" director. Since the shoot, Malick shot a second film (set around the Austin music scene... we think) and fought a few legal battles over his "Tree of Life" IMAX companion film "Voyage of Time." So we’ll forgive him that it’s taken this long for "Knight of Cups" to actually make its way on to the theater circuit and towards an actual release date. Monday morning, the 65th Berlin Film Festival announced the first seven films to be included in its 2015 Competition program. And whaddaya know — "Knight of Cups" is on it! Starring Bale, Portman, and Cate Blanchett, the film is about… well, we’re not sure. When...
- 12/15/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
The first seven films for the 65th Berlin Film Festival Competition program have just been announced, slightly lifting a veil of mystery on at least one title. Included in the lineup is Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups, which will vie for prizes in its world premiere. Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman star. Malick has been notorious for the secrecy that shrouds his projects and little has been known about Knight Of Cups other than that it deals with temptations, celebrity, and excess. The Berlin announcement hasn’t provided any more intel, but watchers have pondered when the film would make its first festival appearance, and its inclusion in the Berlinale’s first competition titles has just added an extra dimension to the proceedings as news begins to trickle out of Germany. Malick has won in Berlin before, taking the Golden Bear for 1999’s The Thin Red Line.
- 12/15/2014
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline
Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella to get international premiere out of comp.
The first seven films for the 65th Berlin International Film Festival Competition programme have been selected.
Competitors include former Berlinale bear winners Andreas Dresen (Nightshapes, 1999; Grill Point, 2002) and Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, 1999) with their newest works.
Berlinale regular Peter Greenaway, former Generation participant Andrew Haigh, Russian director Alexey German and newcomer Jayro Bustamante also make the cut.
Kenneth Branagh’s live action Cinderella will screen out of competition.
Films confirmed in competition to date (in alphabetical order):
45 Years
United Kingdom
By Andrew Haigh (Weekend)
With Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay
World premiere
Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming)
Germany / France
By Andreas Dresen (Grill Point, Cloud 9, Stopped on Track)
With Merlin Rose, Julius Nitschkoff, Joel Basman, Marcel Heuperman, Frederic Haselon, Ruby O. Fee
World premiere
Cinderella
USA
By Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet)
With Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, [link...
The first seven films for the 65th Berlin International Film Festival Competition programme have been selected.
Competitors include former Berlinale bear winners Andreas Dresen (Nightshapes, 1999; Grill Point, 2002) and Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, 1999) with their newest works.
Berlinale regular Peter Greenaway, former Generation participant Andrew Haigh, Russian director Alexey German and newcomer Jayro Bustamante also make the cut.
Kenneth Branagh’s live action Cinderella will screen out of competition.
Films confirmed in competition to date (in alphabetical order):
45 Years
United Kingdom
By Andrew Haigh (Weekend)
With Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay
World premiere
Als wir träumten (As We Were Dreaming)
Germany / France
By Andreas Dresen (Grill Point, Cloud 9, Stopped on Track)
With Merlin Rose, Julius Nitschkoff, Joel Basman, Marcel Heuperman, Frederic Haselon, Ruby O. Fee
World premiere
Cinderella
USA
By Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet)
With Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, [link...
- 12/15/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
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