Archive of films Volcano / Ixcanul
Jayro Bustamante’s debut drama concerns present-day Mayans living in a remote region of Guatemala. Exquisitely filmed nonactors at the base of a volcano – a reminder of age-old traditions and contemporary problems – earned Bustamante the Alfred Bauer Prize at this year’s Berlinale.
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old María lives with her parents in a rough structure in the foothills of an active volcano, where her father supervises a coffee plantation. As the film opens, María sees two pigs refusing to mate, and she might have to forcefeed them rum to ensure a successful copulation. In Bustamante’s film the rugged landscape, in which humans manage as best they can, forms a ravishing backdrop to the progress of María’s sexual maturity. The girl likes a boy from the plantation, and she’d be happy to leave with him for the States, but her parents have a better catch. “I spent my childhood in the Guatemalan highlands, land of the Maya, surrounded by volcanoes and ancient indigenous traditions,” says the director, who accompanied his mother on her medical campaigns o convince Mayan women to vaccinate their children. Bustamante focuses on the faces of nonactors and the lives of the characters, and thus skillfully avoids the clichés of ethnographic filmmaking. In addition to the truly stunning wide-angle cinematography, the movie is engaging for its sophisticated soundtrack that blends folk music with authentic ambient sound.
Šimon Šafránek
About the director

Jayro Bustamante (b. 1977, Guatemala) studied communications at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, where he also worked for Ogilvy & Mather ad agency. He later studied direction in Paris and screenwriting in Rome. His short films have earned him success, with the latest, Cuando sea grande (2012), winning the CNC Achievement Award at the festival in Clermont Ferrand; the work was also broadcast by various European TV stations. Volcano is his feature debut. The film screened in the competition at this year’s Berlinale and won the Alfred Bauer Prize for a feature film that opens new perspectives.
Contacts
Film Factory Entertainment
C/ Lincoln 11, 2º 4ª, 08006, Barcelona
Spain
Tel: +34 933 684 608
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.filmfactoryentertainment.com
About the film
Color, DCP
Section: | Horizons |
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Director: | Jayro Bustamante |
Screenplay: | Jayro Bustamante |
Dir. of Photography: | Luis Armando Arteaga |
Editor: | César Díaz |
Art Director: | Pilar Peredo |
Producer: | Maria Peralta, Pilar Peredo, Edgard Tenembaum, Jayro Bustamante |
Production: | La Casa de Producción |
Coproduction: | Tu Vas Voir |
Cast: | María Mercedes Coroy, María Telón, Manuel Antún |
Sales: | Film Factory Entertainment |
Guests

Peter Nágel
Festival Organizer

Ivana Petríková
Festival Organizer