On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
Today, Mediático presents an entry by Carolyn Fornoff, Ph.D. candidate in Spanish &
Portuguese at the University of Pennsylvania. Fornoff is currently completing work on her
dissertation, Species Sadness: Sex, Politics and Nonhuman Creativity in Latin America. She
has research interests in twentieth-century Latin American literature and film with a focus
on Central America and Mexico, the environmental humanities and the politics of nature in
culture, feminist and queer theories, and subjectivity and affect in contemporary
culture. Fornoff has a website here and you can follow her on Twitter at @c4noff.
By Carolyn Fornoff
Central American cinema has gone from practically
nonexistent to flourishing over the past decade. In
Guatemala, this transformation began in large part with the
creation of the Casa Comal collective, which established a
film festival, Ícaro, in 1998 to promote regional cinema, and
later expanded its operation to include a production
company and a filmmaking school. Through the deliberate
development of these regional networks and steady building
of local audiences for regional films, cinema throughout the
isthmus has experienced a long overdue renaissance. Yet in
spite of the expansion of regional funding opportunities like
Click image to access trailer
CINERGIA, most Central American filmmakers are still left
to their own devices. Jayro Bustamante’s debut feature film,
Ixcanul (which translates to “Volcano” from Maya
Kaqchikel), provided evidence that the region had “arrived”
when it garnered heaps of praise on the international film
circuit last year. It was awarded the prestigious Silver Bear
at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival—notably, the
first Central American film ever considered for the
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
prize—and was also Guatemala’s second official entry to the
Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (its first
since 1994).
The fact that Ixcanul, one of the first Guatemalan features to ever receive broad
international acclaim, focuses on the precarity of a young indigenous woman and features
boldly lush cinematography of the Guatemalan highlands, may prompt potential viewers to
respond with wary anticipation. International audiences have long been known to eagerly
consume Latin American films that offer exoticizing, tragic narratives about the struggles of
impoverished, unfamiliar cultural groups. Fortunately, Ixcanul falls into none of the usual
essentializing traps. I was lucky enough to catch it at Mexico City’s Cineteca Nacional
during its 36 Foro Internacional de Cine this summer. Bustamante’s directorial debut offers
a beautifully filmed, specific and nuanced portrait of indigeneity in Guatemala today.
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
While many recent films emerging from Guatemala track urban stories, like Julio Hernández
Cordón’s excellent Gasolina (2008), others that highlight its rural landscape use it as a
setting that is particularly apt for generating thrilling suspense, like the enjoyable romp 12
segundos (Kenneth Muller 2013) or novelist Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s directorial debut, Lo que
soñó Sebastián (2004, available on Vimeo). The volcano from which Ixcanul derives its title
is similarly central; a looming presence and deep charcoal tonal backdrop that frames some
of the film’s most moving scenes. In the hands of cinematographer Luis Armando Arteaga,
the volcano is rendered not just as a backdrop, but breathes life into the film, swirling mist
and cinders around the characters, always seemingly on the verge of eruption.
Ixcanul centers on a young indigenous protagonist and transpires almost entirely in the
Kaqchikel language, structuring elements that are surprisingly rare for Guatemalan cinema,
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
given that approximately 40% of the population identifies as indigenous. (As a side note,
another such film organized around these elements that I am eager to see is La casa más
grande del mundo (also from 2015, directed by Ana V. Bojorquez and Lucía Carreras). The
plot tracks the coming-of-age of María (the expressive María Mercedes Coroy), a 17-year-old
Kaqchikel woman. Her parents (Manuel Antún and scene-stealing María Telon) have
arranged her hand in marriage to Ignacio (Justo Lorenzo), a widower with three children,
who is also the overseer of the coffee plantation where her family lives and works. A lot
rides on this arranged marriage: without it, her family risks losing both their livelihoods and
home. María is indifferent toward Ignacio; instead she yearns for Pepe (Marvin Coroy,
effortlessly exuding teenage angst), who inspires in her both lustful desire and fantasies
about immigrating beyond the volcano to the United States.
The film does justice to María’s burgeoning desire in quiet scenes that close in on her face
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
as she impassively observes, for instance, pigs fornicating after they have been fed rum. In a
memorable sequence shot in deliberately rich earth tones—that could have turned hokey in
the hands of a different director—, María tenderly sucks sap from a tree before pleasuring
herself on its trunk. The unhurried eroticism of these exploratory scenes is set in stark
contrast to the rough haste of the reality of consummation with an intoxicated Pepe.
Without giving away too much, things quickly unravel for María: Pepe leaves for the US
without her and she realizes that she is pregnant, a discovery that imperils her engagement
as well as her family’s home and livelihood. This turn of events sets other more tragic balls
in motion, allowing the film to tackle the gendered and racist aspects of spirituality,
agricultural labor, rural life, the healthcare system, and corrupt bureaucracy in Guatemala
today.
The final third of Ixcanul drives home the insurmountable language barrier that
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
Guatemala’s indigenous population encounters when navigating official spaces of
bureaucracy. The absence of translators in key institutions such as hospitals or police
stations disempowers these groups and facilitates their exploitation. Because Ignacio is the
only individual who can speak both Spanish and Kaqchikel, the family is even more
dependent upon him. Distressingly, he abuses this power at their expense. As viewers, we
have access, like Ignacio, to both what is said in Spanish as well as to the subtitles of
Kaqchikel. Because of this access, we witness the whole of Ignacio’s manipulation in a way
that the other characters can only sense. The contrast between the family’s confusion and
vulnerability and our own privileged access to both languages establishes for the viewer
that we, too, are complicit in the uneven dynamics of language, knowledge, and power.
The representation of indigenous protagonists in Latin American films—when they are
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
represented at all—is often highly problematic or suffers from one dimensionality. One such
example is the largely excellent Mexican film La jaula de oro (Diego Quemada-Diez 2013),
which narrates the efforts of a group of teenagers to emigrate from Guatemala to the United
States. La jaula stages the tension that arises between the three ladino protagonists and
Chauk, a Tzotzil boy from Chiapas who cannot speak Spanish. The cultural and social
differences that surface between the four companions are central to the film, and skillfully
developed in scenes where Juan mocks Chauk’s indigeneity. Yet Chauk is largely one
dimensional, trapped within the trope of the noble savage: a secondary character who is
pure, well intentioned, asexual, and ultimately a victim whose presence serves primarily as
the means to an end, so that Juan can overcome his prejudices.
Without falling into the traps of essentializing Kachiquel culture, Ixcanul does a good job of
rounding out its protagonists, and demonstrating the complexity of indigenous cultures,
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On the recent Guatemalan film IXCANUL
which are not exempt from problematic dynamics of sexism or toxic masculinity. By keeping
the film grounded in the perspective of its young female protagonist, the viewer witnesses
her navigate sexist tradition, corrupt bureaucracy, and international trafficking. Yet though
Ixcanul peels back the many layers of injustice that ensnare María, she is rarely depicted as
fragile, or as solely a victim. This is perhaps achieved through the film’s spare use of
dialogue and preference for close ups over point-of-view shots, tactics that generate ample
space for María Mercedes Coroy to develop her character through restrained facial
expressions that are, at times, hard to decipher. Coroy’s eyes are privileged over the mouth;
María rarely smiles, but split-second hints of upturned lips into a slight smile feel like an
abundance, a privileged moment where we are allowed to glimpse her interior life.
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