Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante, whose feature “Mountains of Fire” (“Cordillera de Fuego”) screens at the 14th IFF Panama, is in production on his latest work, “Eruption,” (“Erupción”) which aims to shed light on his country’s turbulent history through art and dance.
“I’ve been trying to make this film for 10 years because there is no book that tells the real history of Guatemala. Books out there recount moments, but they leave out the whole part about the genocide and about Spanish subjugation. They just focus on how important the wars are and the wars that have been won,” said Bustamante whose “La Llorona” won the director award at 2019’s Venice Days and was shortlisted for an International Feature Oscar.
He describes “Eruption” as a documentary-art film, where he incorporates dance sequences alongside interviews with such luminaries as Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a K’iche’ Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and current Guatemalan president Bernardo Arévalo. “The film is built as a collective story, woven from the voices of women, students, artists and indigenous peoples. There is no single protagonist but a conversation across generations and memories. Each voice speaks from its territory and experience, together forming a collective portrait of who we are when we refuse to disappear,” he said.
He chose the language of dance to further express these complex themes and give voice to social and political narratives. “We are using dance as the language that helps us feel the emotions of those moments.”
Not unlike his acclaimed feature, “La Llorona,” his latest opus “Mountains of Fire” and other films, Bustamante seeks to inform on Indigenous issues that have long been buried.
“Guatemala, land of volcanoes and ancient peoples, has spent over 500 years searching for a way to live in equality. From the conquest to the present day, the 23 nations that inhabit this territory – Maya, Xinca, Garífuna, and mestizo – have resisted systems that excluded them, colonial powers that exploited them and governments that divided them,” the film’s manifesto declares.
“Eruption” will trace the history of Guatemala, starting with the arrival of the Spanish, the search for independence and for democracy. “But instead of democracy, what was obtained were military regimes and dictatorships. When we finally achieved democracy, we had the intervention of the U.S. with the CIA and the United Fruit Company, and then they stirred up a whole war that lasted 40 years and destroyed the country and after that, how did we get out of that war? Because that war ended in genocide and after the genocide, how did we rebuild ourselves? Until we began to live in the new era, which is the era of corruption and cartels where we are still fighting.”
“All this sounds a bit like a history of a submissive people. But in reality, what history tells is of a resilient people,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, “Mountains of Fire” premieres in Guatemala on May 16, not long after the May 9 Premios Platino where it is nominated for a sound award
The eight-episode series he co-directed for Netflix, “Palace” (“Palacio”) in Colombia, starring Natalia Reyes (“Terminator: Dark Fate,” “It Would be Night in Caracas”), is currently in post and set to be released in November.
He’s also co-writing WWII drama “Downwind” with IFF Panama Foundation president and filmmaker Pituka Ortega-Heilbron, which he’ll direct.
The 14th IFF Panama runs over April 9 – 12.
‘Eruption’ Credit: Alejandro Ardila
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