Ixcanul
Directed by: Jayro Bustamante
Written by: Jayro Bustamante
Starring: María Mercedes Coyro, María Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo, Marvin Coroy
Drama - 93 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Aug 2016
Written by: Jayro Bustamante
Starring: María Mercedes Coyro, María Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo, Marvin Coroy
Drama - 93 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Aug 2016
Young María only knows a few certainties in her backwater life in rural Guatemala. Her family’s subsistence relies on the local coffee plantation, the dominating volcano they reside next to must be appeased, and her future is not her own. Writer/director Jayro Bustamante introduces us to a locale most of us have never seen before and reminds us of a forgotten tribe of people most of us vaguely recall from textbooks, the Mayans. Bustamante’s themes are not as obscure as the volcano though; being able to choose one’s own destiny and path in life are as familiar in film as picking coffee beans are to María. Ixcanul is a stark and realistic in-your-face portrayal of one girl’s attempt to find her own way who winds up representing an entire culture and way of life.
María (María Mercedes Coroy) is the only daughter of plantation coffee bean pickers who also eke out a meager farming existence on the side. Now somewhere in her mid-teens, local tradition expects María’s parents to find a good marriage match for her. Here, they excel. The plantation foreman, Ignacio (Justo Lorenzo), fancies María. Ignacio is as close as the community can get to a real professional. Ignacio works directly for “The Boss”. We never see “The Boss” and he is usually only addressed in hushed, fearful tones, but anyone who claims a connection to him is a man with true swagger in the village.
María (María Mercedes Coroy) is the only daughter of plantation coffee bean pickers who also eke out a meager farming existence on the side. Now somewhere in her mid-teens, local tradition expects María’s parents to find a good marriage match for her. Here, they excel. The plantation foreman, Ignacio (Justo Lorenzo), fancies María. Ignacio is as close as the community can get to a real professional. Ignacio works directly for “The Boss”. We never see “The Boss” and he is usually only addressed in hushed, fearful tones, but anyone who claims a connection to him is a man with true swagger in the village.
An early scene shows off a dinner whose true purpose is to serve as negotiations between the two families. We see an eager Ignacio, a sullen María, and future in-laws who are inquisitive about how good a housekeeper María will be and how many sons she will bear. María’s mama (María Telón), assures the company María has fertility ‘on her hands’. The one person not consulted in either the negotiations nor in who will marry whom, is María. Mayan marriage is about familial pedigree and community advancement; love may or may not come later. We understand María’s ideas on the subject through her infrequent questions.
“What is behind the volcano?” “What is the United States like?” Through talk and rumors, María knows her future and opportunity lie in a strange land named the United States which is just behind the volcano, past some place called Mexico. María’s ticket out is Pepe (Marvin Coroy), an unreliable plantation picker who is more about talking of leaving than actually following through on anything. To tie herself to Pepe, a boy she must liquor herself up for before seducing him, María discovers the easiest way to get Pepe to take her away is through the one thing he has on his mind, her body.
Nothing goes to plan and before long, María is alone, pregnant, and fast running out options she never really had in the first place. The consequences of her actions will not be carried out against her, but her family. They could be kicked off the plantation’s land and forced to roam. There will be scandal. There will be bad omens. Even the volcano may have something to say about it. Surrounding the drama and sleepless nights is the rare and mesmerizing look at the life and times of an entire section of people forgotten by the world, forgotten even by their own country.
We know Guatemala as a Spanish-speaking, Catholic, Central American country still recovering from a long and brutal Civil War and plagued by gang violence. The Mayan people we watch and learn from do not speak Spanish; they maintain their native tongue which predates the arrival of Spanish by millennia, Kaqchikel. When María and her family see the big city for the first time, they might as well be on the moon the culture shock is so intense. Bustamante expertly and quite subtly shows us how effective the Guatemalan system is at exploiting its struggling native population. No government bureaucrat can personally help because they only speak Spanish and look down upon their backwards neighbors.
Bustamante learned about the land of the Maya as a child following his mother through the highlands as she attempted to gain trust and instruct the the indigenous inhabitants about vaccination. Ixcanul shows us why the Mayans may have been wise in being wary of outsiders; during the war, Guatemala became infamous for abducting and exporting its own children for profit. Bustamante steers clears of the inherent melodrama such a complex and dark issue may easily fall into. María and her family are authentic as is their way of life; Bustamante personally trained members of the local community to act in the film. There are no professional actors here. This authenticity provides a tense but vivid window into a place and people void of modernity yet oppressed by those who claim it.
Bustamante learned about the land of the Maya as a child following his mother through the highlands as she attempted to gain trust and instruct the the indigenous inhabitants about vaccination. Ixcanul shows us why the Mayans may have been wise in being wary of outsiders; during the war, Guatemala became infamous for abducting and exporting its own children for profit. Bustamante steers clears of the inherent melodrama such a complex and dark issue may easily fall into. María and her family are authentic as is their way of life; Bustamante personally trained members of the local community to act in the film. There are no professional actors here. This authenticity provides a tense but vivid window into a place and people void of modernity yet oppressed by those who claim it.
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