Ixcanul (2015)

Life in paradise is not always a dream come true. A promised girl get lured by the unknown attraction of money and adventure with a working boy just long enough to get screwed. The mistake is not easily solved and more dramatic the situation becomes, until we make it full circle. Not before many hearts get broken. Beauty all over the place in the film. Excellent acting, felt like it was reenacted by the very people that the story was about. Very glad to see a glimpse of the world, unknown so far as well.

The director's feature film debut. From Guatemala, selected to represent the Oscars in the previous year (2016), but did not make. The film was based on the real about a small Mayan family living closer to the active volcano slope working in the coffee plantation. A perfect depiction of hardship of life, but from the perspective of a teenager. The life between adulthood and childhood, and for the lack of the knowledge of the real world, how they are misled was the film's purpose.I liked the film, no question about that. But it did not start like that. I hate films showing cruelty towards animals. It does not matter livestock, wild animals or anything else. The exception is only for the nature documentaries which does not involve human. So it all started with a strong dislike for the film. I was not sure I about writing a review for it. But the film convinced me with the later parts. I was not expecting it. In the end, I felt a very good film became a just above average because of one bad sequence.The film follows the character Maria. The seventeen year old girl was promised to the one who works in the city. But she wants to leave the place, country to the United States. That's when she begins to have her sexual urge. Following that, she develops a relationship with a boy from the coffee plantation. The consequence is the bigger price she has to face. With numerous challenges, not just her, but the whole family should overcome it. So how they are prepared for it and other following struggles revealed in the remaining narration.❝He's probably living in the United States in a big house with a garden, like those in the magazine. He must speak English by now.❞The film highlights many things. One of those was how the poverty ridden, illiterate people are misguided. The indigenous Guatemalan people that showed in this film really amazed me. Okay, the girl made a mistake, but how her family reacted to it was a surprise to me. Being very cultured, I did not expect that. In fact, I thought it could turn into a thriller, particularly in its finale. But the entire film was a drama and finding a solution to solve the issue as the way it flows. Then comes the misconception which drags the family into more trouble.At that point of the narration, the film was close to the end. But an unexpected twist made its way. The part where desperation takes the front seat. With all the sudden, everything was resolved, but good or sad is to know, one must watch the film. Like the filmmaker, the casting was also new faces. The storyline seems simple, but where it sets in was the challenge the cast and crew excelled. The original title Ixcanul means volcano in Mayan language, but it is a force looking to explode is the correct definition, that's explained by the director.It is one of first Guatemalan films for me. I'm very impressed with the story, the performances, locations and the overall film. It is not just a film festival product, it is like any Hollywood or the rest of the world cinema that qualified to call a good film. So if you are watching lots of regular films and got bored, you can try this for a change. A different language, different setting, but a situation every culture, ethnic had seen, that now you can learn how it all confronted by these people. Just like the film 'Tanna', but not all the same. Excluding the opening part I complained about, this is a nice film to check it out. But I won't mention the word recommended!7/10

I've long been interested in Mayan mythology and culture, so when I heard about a new movie from Guatemala in the Maya language, I knew it was a film I wanted to see. "Ixcanul" is the Maya word for volcano, which looms large in the film, both physically and as a psychological barrier between this village and the rest of the world.Maria is a teenage girl, beautiful and bold. She lives with her parents, their only child, on a coffee plantation. Her parents have arranged her marriage to the plantation foreman, but neither seem particularly enthused about it. Instead, Maria dreams of escaping to the United States with a local worker. Despite her best attempts to get Pepe's agreement to take her with him North, she never secures a committed response. Her actions, however, have significant repercussions for her and her family.This could be a film about the uncaring and unsympathetic corporate owners of the plantations, or it could be about the ignorance of peasant life in the Guatemalan villages, or it could be a film that romanticizes North American culture and lifestyle, but it is none of these things. What it is, is an intimate and honest story of a brief moment in time of a family caught on the crossroads of tradition and modernity. "Ixcanul" is Guatemala's first entry in the Academy Awards for Foreign Language Film, and it certainly deserves to win. I am intrigued by the language and have a few unanswered questions, so it is likely I will pick this one up for the collection when released.

Yes,I had to read the internet reviews to figure out the plot;& came in fully prepared to compare it to the last similar movie,'el Abraxo de la Serpiente',by Ciro Guerra,a more documentary-like,instructional film about the effects of 300 years of European colonialism on the indigenous Indians of the amazon rain forest. But strangely,the woman(very stoic looking Maria Mercedes Coroy,great actress)reminded me of the Mexican waif('Ride the Pink Pony',1946);excuse me,'RIde the Pink Horse', starring Robert Montgomery; about the small girl who keeps dogging this ex-GI,who lands in San Pablo,New Mexico determined to flush out a new York Mobster for squaring away past debts?both put in great performances;there was a lot of astrological/ mystical references in 'el Abraxo....',not as many in this movie,I wish there were more of those,but Juana(Telon) did call out a lot of references to beseeching blessings of earth,wind,water,volcano,or sacrifice a pig as offering to appease a long,dormant volcano, lest it explode w/ lava & havoc to the nearby villages, so as to bring good luck to her daughter's betrothel to the local coffee plantation owner.(in 'el Abraxo....' it was the local rubber plantation owners who were the villains in movie...)>>