Ixcanul(2015)
dir. Jayro Bustamante
A Maya girl's story, told in her language.
Where to watch: Kino Film Collection (subscription, free trial); Plex listing seen but not confirmedLetterboxd ↗
María is a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya girl living on a coffee plantation in the Guatemalan highlands, promised in marriage to the overseer. She has other ideas, falls for a young man who plans to leave for the US, and ends up pregnant in a world where she speaks no Spanish and can't read the papers people put in front of her. Bustamante shot it with Kaqchikel-speaking non-professional actors.
Why it’s here
The film puts a Maya woman's story on screen in her own language without translating her world for outsiders. What's punk is the refusal to explain. What's pedagogical is how language and paper become instruments of power, and how the thin line between folk belief and exploitation gets used. Adds a Mesoamerican voice the catalog lacks. Mature themes including pregnancy and a baby's loss.
Where This Film Lives
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