La Llorona (2019)

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Movie
Original title La Llorona
Country of production Guatemala , France
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2019
length 97 minutes
Rod
Director Jayro Bustamante
script Jayro Bustamante,
Lisandro Sanchez
production Jayro Bustamante,
Gustavo Matheu
music Pascual Reyes
camera Nicolás Wong
cut Jayro Bustamante,
Gustavo Matheu
occupation

La Llorona is a thriller by Jayro Bustamante that premiered at the Venice International Film Festival at the end of August 2019 .

action

The retired General Enrique Monteverde lives with his family in a villa in Guatemala City. He will face trial for his crimes against humanity during the civil war nearly 30 years earlier. Thousands of Maya farmers lost their lives under his presidency. Witnesses report how Monteverde's armed forces not only destroyed their villages but also raped their mothers and daughters in the early 1980s to maintain control of the country. During the trial, the judge declares that Monteverde's junta has undoubtedly caused great damage that is beyond human understanding and affects all of Guatemalan society.

After a brief stay in the hospital, Monteverde returns to his family and awaits the verdict. Angry demonstrators have gathered in front of their house. His former cabinet members are concerned about life sentences for themselves should Monteverde be found guilty. Enrique's wife, Carmen, would like to let the past rest and deny her husband's deeds, especially because she is full of prejudices against the indigenous Maya. Her daughter Natalia, on the other hand, does not suppress her family's guilt for what happened, but her mother forbids her to talk about the matter.

After all the domestic workers quit the Monteverdes and leave the servant Valeriana alone, Alma takes the stage. The family hardly takes any notice of her. So no one asks why their new housekeeper, a young Indigenous woman who appears meek and dutiful, is willing to work for a family like hers, especially when so many of her own people have gathered outside . Alma spends a lot of time with Natalia's little daughter Sara, the general's granddaughter. They prefer to play in the water.

The days are less relaxed for the rest of the family. At night Enrique is torn from his sleep when he hears a loud howling, which only he can hear, while his family believes that his dementia makes him believe it. In his paranoia, he almost shoots his wife, who followed her husband in the dark. Carmen and Natalia cannot enjoy sunbathing by the pool or relaxing with their yoga exercises, as the noise made by the protesters in front of the house cannot be ignored despite the garden walls. Since Enrique was acquitted, the crowds in front of the villa have become even louder and keep the family constantly awake.

production

Bar and film title

Directed by Jayro Bustamante , who wrote the script together with Lisandro Sanchez . About the title character, Manohla Dargis of the New York Times says that as a figure of folklore in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, La Llorona is a malleable symbol of female power, sometimes portrayed as a tragic figure, sometimes terrible and sometimes both. Although the details of her misfortune and symbolism may vary from story to story, the basic story is about the spirit of a woman cursed to weep for her dead children, whom she herself drowned. Like Medea and others like her, she was both the giver of life and the destroyer of her children.

Cast and filming

Former President of Guatemala Efraín Ríos Montt , here in court, resembles General Enrique Monteverde in many ways in the film

Julio Diaz took over the role of the former General Enrique Monteverde . His figure serves as a placeholder for the Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt , who was the dictatorial president of Guatemala from March 23, 1982 to August 8, 1983, and who was sentenced to 80 years in prison in 2013 for genocide and crimes against humanity. His military terror campaign in the 1980s resulted in the massacre of thousands of indigenous peoples. Bustamante cast the role of Letona with Juan Pablo Olyslager , the main actor in his film Temblores , which he presented in Berlin at the beginning of 2019 . María Telón , who played the nanny Rosa in Temblores , was given the role of Valeriana, Sabrina de La Hoz , who played a pastor in the film, the role of Natalia. María Mercedes Coroy , who Bustamante presented to the audience for the first time in his feature film debut Ixcanul , plays Alma, the new housekeeper of the Monteverde family and only supporter of Valeriana, who is now alone. The name of the young Cakchiquel woman means “spirit” in Spanish. Margarita Kenefic plays Enrique's wife Carmen, Sabrina De La Hoz her daughter Natalia and Ayla-Elea Hurtado her little daughter Sara, the general's granddaughter.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum , a Quiché Maya who grew up during the Guatemalan civil war , witnessed human rights violations and fought for the rights of indigenous people in Guatemala, can be seen in a cameo in the film and appears in a key scene among many other actually survivors of the civil war. Bustamante's grandmother was also a Maya, a cakchiquel closely related to quiché.

For the first time, Bustamante worked for La Llorona with the Peruvian cameraman Nicolás Wong .

Film music and publication

The film music, which creates a horror atmosphere, was composed by Pascual Reyes .

The film was first shown on August 30, 2019 at the Venice International Film Festival , where it was shown in the Venice Days section. In September 2019 it was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival , at the end of September, beginning of October 2019 at the Zurich Film Festival and in October 2019 at the London Film Festival in the official competition. In January 2020 it was screened in the Spotlight section at the Sundance Film Festival and at the beginning of July 2020 at the Split Festival of Mediterranean Film. On August 6, 2020, the film was released as video-on-demand via the horror streaming platform Shudder in the USA.

reception

Movie genre and reviews

In La Llorona, Jayro Bustamantes combines tension with elements of a political film drama and supernatural thrills. So he succeeded in a modern telling of the classic horror story of a ghostly character of a crying woman who killed her children, according to Monica Castillo. This version of "La Llorona" is based on the recent history of the ruthless Guatemalan military leaders and their efforts to wipe out indigenous tribes, and thus find a new basis for such emotions. The film not only tells a creepy story, but is also a painful reflection of injustice. David Ehrlich notes that aside from their common roots in the same Latin American folklore, the film has virtually nothing to do with Michael Chaves ' Llorona's curse .

The film has so far convinced 98 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8.1 out of a possible 10 points.

Roger Ebert critic Monica Castillo writes that Jayro Bustamante is not interested in tricking viewers into having nightmares about La Llorona. Rather, the uncanny comes from the structured ambience of the film, the coldness that runs through Nicolás Wong's pictures. The furnishings make the family's luxurious home look like a coffin from which there is no escape. However, Bustamante does not use the old haunted story to scare, but rather to force his audience to think about how they are participating in the oppression. Even if you yourself may not have committed serious crimes like the general, each of the other family members represent a different degree of complicity, from Carmen's downright bigotry to Sara's naive questions.

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter writes that Mercedes Coroy in the role of Alma, a silent, accusing presence with huge staring eyes, gives this symbolic figure the mythical dimension of a supernatural avenger.

Awards

Chicago International Film Festival 2019

  • Nomination for best feature film in the international competition ( Jayro Bustamante )

Venice International Film Festival 2019

  • Awarded the GdA Director's Award in the section Giornate degli Autori (Jayro Bustamante)
  • Award as Best Picture with the Fedeora Award in the section Giornate degli Autori (Jayro Bustamante)

London Film Festival 2019

  • Nomination in the competition

Miami Film Festival 2020

  • Received the Knight Marimbas Award (Jayro Bustamante)
  • Nomination for Best Film in the HBO Ibero-American Competition (Jayro Bustamante)

Zurich Film Festival 2019

  • Nomination for the Golden Eye

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Monica Castillo: La Llorona. In: rogerebert.com, August 6, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Manohla Dargis: La Llorona 'Review: The General in His Horrific Labyrinth. In: The New York Times, August 5, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b David Ehrlich: 'La Llorona' Review: An Artful Guatemalan Horror Movie About the Ghosts of a Genocide. In: indiewire.com, January 24, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c Guy Lodge: Venice Film Review: 'La Llorona'. In: Variety, September 16, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Deborah Young: 'The Weeping Woman' ('La Llorona'): Film Review. In: The Hollywood Reporter, September 30, 2019.
  6. ^ Carolina A. Miranda: Review: 'La Llorona' smartly reimagines a folk legend as political horror story. In: Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2020.
  7. ↑ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-08-19/la-llorona-rigoberta-menchu-guatemala
  8. ↑ Ben Dalton: BFI London Film Festival selects 10 titles for 2019 competition. In: screendaily.com, August 28, 2019.
  9. ↑ 2020 Sundance Film Festival: 118 Feature Films Announced. In: sundance.org, December 4, 2019.
  10. ↑ https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/389872
  11. ↑ http://promotehorror.com/2020/08/05/la-llorona-comes-to-shudder-august-6th/
  12. ↑ La Llorona. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  13. ^ Announcing Competitions for the 55th Chicago International Film Festival. In: chicagofilmfestival.com. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  14. ↑ 'When Liberty Burns' and 'La Llorona' Win Top Jury Awards At 37th Miami Film Festival; 'The Fight' and '90 Minutes' Take Audience Awards. In: miamifilmfestival.com, March 23, 2020.
  15. ↑ La Lorona. In: miamifilmfestival.com. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  16. ↑ Program 2019: International Feature Film / Competition. In: zff.com. Retrieved September 12, 2019.