Ixcanul

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.

Ixcanul is a practically flawless work of naturalistic cinema. Much has been said about the cutural specifics of the film, but not enough about Ixcanul as an argument for the vitality of naturalism, in an era that has been blinkered with frivolous spectacle. The movie treats its audience as adults, never telling them what to think or feel. It's beautifully lit and composed, subtle, thorny and complex. If you can find nothing engaging here, it's hardly the fault of the film.

Ixcanul is a cinematic chef-d'oeuvre that sheds light on the plight of many indigenous Guatemalans who suffer from almost unfathomable levels of economic, social, and political exploitation. The film has many heart-breaking moments where the powerlessness of the film's protagonists comes through in a way that feels deeply real and authentic. One of the most interesting aspects of this films is that it is the first feature film created in Kaqchikel, one of the many indigenous Mayan languages of Guatemala. The actors are all native speakers of Kaqchikel, and the filmmakers overcame significant difficulties to assemble the cast that they did. The fact that the actors are so inexperienced makes the film all the more incredible because it did not at moment seem faked, at least for me. I would also like to address some of the criticism that has been levelled at the film and the filmmakers. The problem of orthography, that the title uses a c instead of a k, following modern (instead of colonial) spelling conventions, seems like minutiae compared to all of the positive work the film does in raising awareness of many of the problems indigenous Guatemalans face on a routine basis. Many also say the film only reinforces stereotypes about indigenous peoples in Guatemala and in the Americas more broadly. In that for many people this film will be their first exposure to contemporary Mayans, there is a risk of Ixcanul becoming a single story that defines an entire people. But it is the choice of the spectator to determine whether or not he/she will extrapolate stereotypes about an entire people from the portrayal of one family in one village at one specific point in time. However, if you look beyond these somewhat valid criticisms, you will see a cinematic masterpiece that will make you look at the world in a different way.

For a Mayan family of three living on misty and sable volcano slopes, snakes come in both reptile and human form. Blessings are bestowed upon the family as well. 17 year old Maria dreams of life on the other side of the volcano. This place she dreams of, stretching from the other side of the volcano, across all of Mexico and into the United States, is nowhere that anyone she knows has ever been. Yet her pleasant life picking coffee, cooking and taking care of farm animals is too sedate for her. She intends to bolt from an arranged marriage with her father's boss. In doing so she sets herself up for confrontations between needs; company and independence, city and country, adventure and stability, Mayan and Spanish, and more. In this struggle the real character of Maria will become more apparent.

If exquisite cinematography is your thing, you will like this unlikely yet appealing pairing of Guatemala and France. The acting is more convincing for the local talent, for even the best actors in the world would not make convincing Mayans. Kaqchikel is the film language. Ixcanul is available by Netflix snail mail delivery, a delivery that matches the gentle and pleasing pace of the film.