Ixcanul

Ixcanul       February 28, 2016

Today I am excited that we have reservations to see a Guatemalan movie, Ixcanul (Ish-can-OOL), which we heard quite a bit about last year.  It is Guatemala's first movie ever entered into competition for an Academy Award - which it didn't win :(. It did, however, win a top prize at the Berlin Film Festival last year!

The writer and director, Jayro Bustamante, is a young man who grew up in Panajachel and whose mother is a dear friend of "our" Ana.   The movie tells a sad story that takes place in a pueblo near Antigua.  The main characters are two Mayan women, mother and daughter.  There was lots of excitement in Ana's home last year as these two actors, plus Jayro's mom - and others, I'm sure - flew to Paris, and then to Berlin for the awards ceremony.  Ana helped her friend choose a wardrobe for the wintery weather in Berlin.  Dressed in their traditional clothing, the Mayan actresses were a big hit.  The younger of the two, a very beautiful woman, was not a professional actress, and she wears the traje and huipl every day at home.  One can only imagine the experience for her to leave her tiny village on the slope of a volcano, overlooking Antigua, and travel to the glitter and attention of a cinema festival in a European city. 

We are so fortunate that the movie is being shown at a hotel right around the corner from us here in Antigua.  Since much of it will be in Kaqchikel, a Mayan language, as well as Spanish, we are also lucky that the powers that be have chosen to include English subtitles for this particular show - on the very weekend that we are here.   Muy bien!  

You can google Ixcanul and learn more, and you can see a trailer on YouTube at this link:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMMP0Z21zqU