The 6th edition of World Cinema Amsterdam (14 - 23 Aug) will be officially opened on Friday 14 August at Rialto with IXCANUL, a film from Guatemala debut director Jayro Bustamante.
"Hypnotically beautiful" – thus leading American film magazine Variety described Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante's debut feature. And the film did not go unnoticed: at the Berlin film festival, IXCANUL was awarded the prestigious Alfred Bauer Prize, and the Mexican Guadalajara film festival granted both film and director the highest awards.
At the foot of the vast Ixcanul volcano lives 17-year-old Maria, member of a Mayan community of coffee harvesters. She is about to be married off to Ignacio, the plantation foreman. Maria though secretly desires coffee cutter Pepe who shares her dream of starting a new life elsewhere. For her, elsewhere is the city, for him it is the United States of America, which is, after all, sitting just "on the other side of the volcano". For Mayans it is however very difficult to access the modern world. When Maria gets pregnant and turns out to have complications, she has to travel to the city for medical care.
Bustamante grew up in this region himself and wanted to give a voice to a people who are marginalized in Guatemalan society in every regard. He achieves this with non-professional actors, all belonging to a Mayan community, and with a visually overwhelming style.
IXCANUL will be screened in Rialto and de Balie during World Cinema Amsterdam.