Jayro Bustamante could be bringing the horror to the Oscars…
The 43-year-old Guatemalan film director and screenwriter’s politically charged horror film La Llorona, which won the Venice Days sidebar at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is Guatemala’s selection to the 2021 International Oscar race.
It’s the second film by Bustamante to get his country’s Academy Awards submission, after his debut feature Ixcanulin 2015.
His latest film fuses the Latin American Llorona myth and modern reality in an exposé of the genocidal atrocities against the Mayan community in Guatemala.
The plot delves into magical realism as it follows Enrique (Julio Diaz), a retired general who oversaw the Mayan genocide and is haunted by his devastating crimes, and possibly a wrathful supernatural force that is targeting him and his family.
Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and survivor of the atrocities, also appears in the film.
The film, which had its U.S. bow this year at the Sundance Film Festival ahead of its August 6 premiere on Shudder, currently has a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Guatemala has yet to be nominated for the International Feature Film Oscar.
The Guatamalan director’s genocide revenge drama La Llorona, set during the 1960s civil war in his country, has won the Venice Days Director Award, the top nod in Venice’s independently run section.
This is the second feature by Bustamante, who put Guatemalan cinema on the map with his debut, Ixcanul.
The film takes its cue from the acquittal of a former Guatemalan general whose initial sentence is overturned on a procedural pretext. This unleashes a vengeful supernatural spirit upon his household.
Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz presided over the jury formed by 28 young European movie buffs. They praised the film for being “an intimate ghost story told through a vivid female character.”
The award comes with a cash prize of $22,000, which is split equally between the director and the film’s international distributor, in this case Film Factory Entertainment.
The 63rd BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the 10 films set to enter the Official Competition at the fest, with the 42-year-old Guatemalan film director and screenwriter’s La Llorona making the list.
Bustamante’s La Llorona, his third feature film, is hailed as a tale of horror and fantasy, ripe with suspense, and an urgent metaphor of recent Guatemalan history and the country’s unhealed political wounds.
The film stars María Mercedes Coroy, Sabrina De La Hoz and Margarita Kenéfic.
In addition to La Llorona, the films in competition are Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d, Alma Har’el’sHoney Boy,Isabel Sandoval’sLingua Franca, Oliver Hermanus’ Moffie, Alejandro Landes’ Monos, Małgorzata Szumowska’s The Other Lamb, Haifaa Al Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s Rose Plays Julie and Rose Glass’ Saint Maud.
The Best Film winner will be chosen by the Official Competition Jury, the members of which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director said, “Our Official Competition showcases the best in global filmmaking. These filmmakers each have unique and distinctive voices and their films by turns reveal truths about human existence; explore stories we haven’t seen before or examine familiar ones in new ways; address pressing social and political issues, and make audiences feel and think. It’s striking that so many of the filmmakers here are telling strongly political stories, but never dogmatically so. We have selected 11 directors in these ten films who invite viewers to probe and ponder, to be changed – either subconsciously or wildly and irrevocably – by their work.”
The 63rd BFI London Film Festival takes place from Wednesday October 2 to Sunday October 13 2019. The full Festival programme will be announced on Thursday August 29.
Full List:
FANNY LYE DELIVER’D (United Kingdom-Germany, dir-scr. Thomas Clay) Maxine Peake delivers a powerhouse performance as the titular character in Thomas Clay’s intoxicating period drama Fanny Lye Deliver’d, a woman living a humble existence with her puritanical husband John (Charles Dance) and young son Arthur on an isolated Shropshire farm in the 17th Century. The daily routines of this God-fearing family are abruptly interrupted when they discover two strangers hiding in their barn, pleading for help. When the family agrees to take them in, it is not long before their progressive ways begin to cause tensions.
HONEY BOY (USA, dir. Alma Har’el) Alma Har’el collaborates with gifted writer and performer Shia LaBeouf to impressive effect for her first dramatic feature Honey Boy, an artful and soul-baring examination of the lingering effects of emotional abuse. Lucas Hedges plays Otis, an alcoholic with a penchant for fiercely self-destructive behaviour who makes a living starring in action films. When an accident forces him into rehab, he begins to examine his troubled past with his unstable and often emotionally abusive father (LaBeouf, playing a version of his own real-life father).
LA LLORONA(Guatemala-France, dir. Jayro Bustamante) Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante’s taut genre-bending thriller, La Llorona, sees elderly general Enrique Monteverde tried for a genocide he oversaw three decades earlier, who finds himself haunted by a spectre of his past; La Llorona, the spirit of a woman who has returned to seek justice for the dead. Guatemala’s lengthy Civil War and the mass murder of Mayan civilians provide a powerful historical framework for Bustamante’s third feature. This is a film about secrets and lies, rendered through a breathtaking visual language that melds horror, fantasy and courtroom drama to disarming effect.
LINGUA FRANCA (USA, dir-scr. Isabel Sandoval) In Lingua Franca, Olivia is a Filipino transwoman and undocumented immigrant in Brooklyn, surreptitiously working as a caregiver for Olga, an elderly Russian woman in the early stages of dementia. She spends her time documenting a staged relationship with the man who has agreed to marry her so she can obtain legal status in the US. One day Olivia meets Olga’s grandson Alex, a despondent slaughterhouse worker battling his own inner demons and the pair develop a strong connection. A beautifully performed character study and an incisive critique on race and immigration in modern America, writer/director Isabel Sandoval (who also takes on the role of Olivia) has crafted a deeply moving work of great intimacy and insight.
MOFFIE (South Africa-United Kingdom, dir. Oliver Hermanus) Oliver Hermanus follows The Endless River (LFF 2015) with Moffi, a haunting examination of the violent persecution of gay men under Apartheid. Nicholas (Kai Luke Brummer) has long known he is different, that there is something in him that must stay hidden, denied even. But in South Africa in 1981, all white young men over 16 must serve two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime and its culture of toxic racist machismo. When fear pushes Nicholas to accept unspeakable horrors in the hopes of staying invisible, a tender relationship with another recruit becomes as dangerous for them both as any enemy fire.
MONOS (Colombia-Argentina-Netherlands-Germany-Sweden-Uruguay-USA, dir. Alejandro Landes) Alejandro Landes delivers one of the most talked-about films of the year in Monos: a hallucinogenic, intoxicating thriller about child soldiers that has inspired feverish buzz and earned comparisons to Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Flies. High in the mountains of South America, above the billowing clouds but with gunshots heard in the distance, a motley group of child and teenage soldiers train and wait for instruction while in the presence of their American hostage, the Doctora. Despite wearing its influences on its sleeve, the film is a wildly original vision from Landes and screenwriter Alexis dos Santos; the camera prowling over mud and organic decay, cutting swathes through the jungle, all to the strains of Mica Levi’s visceral score.
THE OTHER LAMB (Ireland-Belgium-USA, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska) Małgorzata Szumowska’s (Berlin Jury Prize-winner Mug and LFF 2015’s Body) English-language debut The Other Lamb is a beguiling, genre-tinged examination of life in an otherworldly cult. Selah was born into The Flock, a community of women and girls ruled over by Shepherd, the only male, and a seemingly benevolent but undisputed leader of the strictly regimented and isolated woodland settlement. Selah appears the most perfect of the faithful flock, until unsettling revelations see her devotion shaken. Szumowska offers an eerie ethereal vision that compellingly recalls a range of references, from David Koresh’s Waco, Texas cult to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian science fiction.
THE PERFECT CANDIDATE(Germany-Saudi Arabia, dir. Haifaa Al Mansour) Celebrated Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate is an inspiring drama about Maryam, a highly competent young doctor whose road is paved with compromises and complications – quite literally in the case of a flooded path leading to her clinic, the dangers of which are not taken seriously by local officials. When her attempt to drive to a medical conference is stymied by not having the right papers, she finds her only solution is to sign up to be an electoral candidate, allowing her easy access through road blocks. However, when the responsibility of local politics dawns on her, she ropes in her sisters to challenge Saudi Arabia’s strict social codes and what is expected of a young woman in the country.
ROSE PLAYS JULIE (Ireland-United Kingdom, dir-scr. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor) Rose Plays Julie is a frank, immersive and gripping feminist drama from Irish directing duo Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, also known as Desperate Optimists. During a term studying animal euthanasia, veterinary student Rose (Ann Skelly) decides to contact Julie (Orla Brady), the birth mother who gave her up for adoption. But Julie, who is now a successful London-based actress, doesn’t want to know. Undeterred, Rose will not be ignored and curiosity leads her to discoveries that shake the fragile identity she has built for herself. Molloy and Lawlor build a sense of dread inside an exquisite world of immaculate architecture, rendered through an icy performance style and enveloped by a claustrophobic soundtrack.
SAINT MAUD (United Kingdom, dir-scr. Rose Glass) A mysterious nurse becomes dangerously obsessed with saving the soul of her dying patient in director Rose Glass’ divine debut feature, Saint Maud. Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud, arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye. Glass’s gothic-tinged psychological drama is by turns insidiously creepy, darkly humorous and heartbreakingly sad; with Jennifer Ehle’s beautifully nuanced performance proving the perfect complement to Morfydd Clark’s star-making turn as the unsaintly Maud.
Ciro Guerra continues to slither his way to the awards stage…
The 35-year-old film director and screenwriter’s critically acclaimed Embrace of the Serpent, which earned an Academy Award nomination, swept the 3rd Platino Ibero-American Film Awards on Sunday night in Uruguay, taking home seven of the eight categories for which it was nominated.
Although the awards had no clear favorite, Embrace of the Serpent, with Ixcanul, had scored the most nominations and its plaudit sweep did not seem to surprise many.
Shot in widescreen in 35 mm and in black and white Serpent claimed best picture, director, editing (Etienne Boussac, Cristina Gallego), art direction (Angélica Perea), original music (Nascuy Linares), cinematography (the film was shot by David Gallego) and sound (Carlos García, Marco Salavarría).
The story of Karamakate, a shaman who is the last survivor of his tribe and asked, 30 years apart, by two explorers – based on the figures of Theodor Koch-Gruenberg and Richard Evans Schultes – to help them discover the yakuna plant, Embrace of the Serpent charts the devastation of the Amazon by colonial powers, whether Colombian rubber companies or a crazed Spanish priest, but more particularly the loss of indigenous knowledge as whole peoples disappeared under the influx of invasion.
“The ravages of colonialism cast a dark pall over the stunning South American landscape in Embrace of the Serpent, he latest visual astonishment from the gifted Colombian writer-director Ciro Guerra,” Variety wrote in its Cannes Film Festival review.
Ciro Guerre’s third movie has won a string of significant festival, Academy and pan Latin American awards, including a Mexican Silver Ariel, Fénix Film Awards, and plaudits at the Mar del Plata and Palm Springs fests, among others.
Platino acting awards went to two Argentine talents who most certainly deserve wider recognition, Dolores Fonzi, star of Santiago Mitre’s Cannes Critics’ Week winner Paulina, who plays a young lawyer who refuses to compromise her principles when raped while working as a rural teacher, and Guillermo Francella, who portrays a real-life family patriarch and psychopath in Pablo Trapero’s The Clan, who continues for personal profit Argentina’s Dirty War practice of kidnapping and murder after the fall of Argentina’s military junta.
A third Argentine actor, Ricardo Darin, took the Platino Lifetime Achievement Award.
“We have the talent. We just need to have confidence in ourselves,” Darin said on stage, receiving the plaudit. ”That’s why we and Ibero-America need these awards,” he added.
A searing but crafted indictment of the tribulations of a young pregnant and unmarried girl in rural Guatemala, Berlin Silver Bear winner Ixcanul, the feature debut of Jayro Bustamante, once more confirmed its audience appeal, at least with the who have seen it, taking the Platinos’ Audience Award, plus best first feature.
BEST PICTURE
“Embrace of the Serpent,” (Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela)
BEST DIRECTOR
Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
BEST ACTOR
Guillermo Francella (“The Clan,” Argentina, Spain)
BEST ACTRESS
Dolores Fonzi (“Paulina,” Argentina)
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Nascuy Linares (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
BEST ANIMATION MOVIE
“Capture the Flag,” (Enrique Gato, Spain)
BEST DOCU FEATURE
“The Pearl Button,” (Patricio Guzmán, Chile, Spain)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón, Daniel Villalobos (“The Club”)
FIRST FEATURE
“Ixcanul” (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, France)
EDITING
Etienne Boussac, Cristina Gallego (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
ART DIRECTION
Angélica Perea (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
David Gallego (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
SOUND
Carlos García, Marco Salavarría (“Embrace of the Serpent”)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Ricardo Darín
PLATINO AWARD FOR FILM AND EDUCATION IN VALUES
“The Second Mother,” (Anna Muylaert, Brazil)
Jayro Bustamante’s critically acclaimed project is headed north of the border…
Kino Lober has picked up the North American rights to the Guatemalan director’s drama Ixcanulfrom Film Factory Entertainment, who are selling the title worldwide.
The feature debut from Bustamente, premiered at the BerlinInternationalFilm Festival in February, where it won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize. It screens in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery sidebar on Wednesday, September 16.
The dream-like drama focuses on two Mayan lovers living on a coffee plantation on the foothills of an active volcano who flee their homes for the United States.
Ixcanul is Guatemala’s official entry for the 2016 best foreign-language film Oscar, the first-ever submission from the country.
Kino Lober plans a limited theatrical release for Ixcanul in 2016 followed by a video on demand and DVD roll-out.
The Guatemalan director’s first feature film Ixcanul has been chosen as one of the first seven films for the 65th Berlin Film Festival Competition program.
The film, which Bustamante wrote, centers on a 17 year-old Mayan Kaqchikel girl named Maria, who lives with her parents in a coffee plantation on the side of an active volcano in Guatemala. She’s part of an arranged marriage she doesn’t want but can’t escape her fate.
Bustamante’s short films have earned him acclain at a number of film festivals. The most recent, Cuando sea grande, premiered at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival in 2012, where it landed the CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) quality award and was aired on television networks in France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The film stars María Mercedes Croy, María Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo and Marvin Coroy.
Also in the Berlinale mix is Kenneth Branagh’s live-action Disney film Cinderella, although it’s playing out of competition. Lily James plays the titular role, while Helena Bonham Carter portrays the fairy godmother.
Other films that made the first cut include Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein In Guanajuato. Shot in Mexico, the film stars Stelio Savante, Lisa Owen and Maya Zapata. It follows Eisenstein as he spends 10 days in 1931 in Guanajuato, Mexico, where he falls in love. His sensual experiences there turn out to have been crucial in his life and his films. From being a formal filmmaker with films about conceptual ideas, his trip to Mexico humanizes Eisenstein as a filmmaker, and his films become more sympathetic to the human condition.
Berlinale runs from February 5-15.
Here’s a look at the selected film featuring Hispanic talent in front of and/or behind the camera:
Cinderella U.S.
By Kenneth Branagh with Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Stellan Skarsgård, Holliday Grainger, Sophie McShera, Derek Jacobi and Helena Bonham Carter International premiere – Out of competition
Eisenstein In Guanajuato The Netherlands / Mexico / Belgium / Finland
By Peter Greenaway With Elmer Bäck, Luis Alberti
World premiere
Ixcanul (Ixcanul Volcano) Guatemala / France
By Jayro Bustamante With María Mercedes Coroy, María Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo, Marvin Coroy
World premiere – Debut feature
The first time’s the charm for Salvador del Solar…
The 44-year-old Peruvian actor’s directorial debut Magallanespicked up the Films in Progress award on Wednesday night at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
del Solar’s film portrays a man who’s humdrum life suddenly changes when a woman he met while serving in Peru’s military leaps into his taxi.
Magallanes, a Peru-Argentina-Columbia co-production, beat out five other promising, yet unfinished film contenders, including Jayro Bustamante‘s Ixcanul, which received an honorable mention from the competition jury.
The Films in Progress sidebar gives international buyers of Spanish-speaking films a sneak peek at strong projects aimed at the world market.
del Solar just starred in Javier Fuentes-León‘s The Vanished Elephant, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.
Also in San Sebastian, the Europe-Latin America co-production forum award for the best 2014 project went to Armando Capo’s Agosto, a Costa Rica-Cuba co-production. The jury gave an honorable mention to Walls, directed by Spain’s Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina.
The San Sebastian festival runs in Spain’s Basque region until Saturday.
