Jayro Bustamente’s War Crimes Film, ‘La Llorona’, Reckons with Crushing Guilt
Bustament’s Efraín Ríos Montt-inspired
La Llorona reimagines the Latin American folk tale of a woman mourning her children along the banks of the river where they drowned.
La Llorona
6 August 2020 (US, Shudder)| 30 August 2019 (Venice Film Festival)
War criminals tend to act frail when prosecuted for their atrocities. In Jayro Bustamente’s film,
La Llorona (
The Weeping Woman), fictional General Enrique Monteverde (Julio Díaz) breaks into an explosive coughing fit when the guilty verdict is announced at his trial for leading a real-life genocidal campaign during Guatemala’s all-too-recent past. By casting himself as the victim, the moment is stripped from the jubilant, colorfully shrouded Maya Ixil women in the courtroom to see justice finally being served.
Surprise:
La Llorona for Best Foreign Language Film Horror cinema has, with a few key exceptions, always had to fight for space in awards season, so it s nice when any title gets to slip into the field, and this year the horror gem that managed to crack the Golden Globes is Jayro Bustamente s politically charged take on the La Llorona legend. We ve known for a few months that Guatemala planned to submit the film as its entry for Best International Film at the Oscars this year, and now that level of attention and the immense critical acclaimed heaped on the film have landed it a Globes nod.
Horror movies were a primarily US form for many years, as the genre was variably considered too juvenile, preposterous, violent, grotesque and/or tasteless in some nations. Government censors blocked their release where such material was considered inappropriate for public consumption; in certain other locations, the public simply wasn’t interested, whether the films in question were imported or homegrown.
Today, however, such cultural differences are largely gone. For myriad reasons, particularly the exported ubiquity of certain franchises online and in home formats, horror has become the most international of genres as well as the one that (due to its commerciality and usually low budget demands) many young filmmakers choose to start their careers with. So it’s not that unusual that this week brings new entries in the form from not just the US, but Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, and Iranian expats.
Final Golden Globes Predictions: Best Foreign Language – ‘Another Round’ Eyes HFPA Boost Variety 2/24/2021
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