Guatemala isn’t known for having a particularly vibrant film industry, but filmmaker Jayro Bustamante is trying his best to change that. His third feature, the acclaimed horror-tinged drama La Llorona, got the international spotlight when it made the shortlist for Best International Feature at the 93rd Oscars. Now, his fourth film — Rita — is Guatemala’s submission for this year’s awards.
Inspired by a true story, Rita tells the story of a teenager placed in an abusive state-run orphanage, where a tragedy occurs as they plan an escape. It’s a dark fantasy full of magical realism, reminiscent of some of the modern classics of Latin American cinema like Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.
We at FandomWire got to speak with Bustamante about Rita and his approach to telling such a harrowing, tragic story through magical realism. Check out the full interview below!
Rita Interview
FandomWire: It’s exciting to see Guatemalan films and filmmakers like yourself finally getting the spotlight. What do you think the Guatemalan film industry has to offer that international audiences haven’t seen?
Jayro Bustamante: I think that stories coming from each of the corners of the world are interesting to hear. But in Guatemala, especially, is the fact that our stories were silenced for a long time. So we have a lot of stories waiting in line to be told. So that’s, in a way, our mission in my company in Guatemala and the reason that I started working.
I was a student living in Europe, and when I finished my directing school, could you imagine your country without movies? Being without references and having references come from other kinds of cultures, and to have to pray each time to find answers and find yourself in attitudes or people or cultures who are so different? I think it’s a very difficult way to develop your confidence, your self — everything. So I think each people needs to have their own films and their own stories. After that, if the international audience became interested in our stories, that’s another goal.
FW: I think this story is indicative of a greater issue in the history of Guatemala, which is that our violent history is often covered up. What do you think of cinema as a way of calling attention to this violence that needs to be stopped?
Bustamante: The power that we have in terms of audience. We are the popular art. The problem is when we use that power just for entertainment. It’s not a “problem,” but I think in life, time is the most precious thing we have, and if we use our lifetime for non-relevant things, we will have to repeat that life.
FW: I was shocked to learn that Rita was based on a true story. What drew you to telling this story?
Bustamante: When it happened in Guatemala in 2017, and these 41 girls died because of the state’s responsibility, it was a very hard experience for the Guatemalan people — not just because we realized again that we were living in an unjust world, under impunity, but because we realized that every one of us had a lot of responsibility about how we take care of our new generations.
So, the difficult thing was how to invite the audience to watch people, girls suffering. In that moment, the language of magical realism and fantasy became the perfect company.
FW: Both Rita and La Llorona use horror elements to tell an allegorical story. What excites you about this approach?
Bustamante: The first point was a very sad thing. I did very deep research about this institution, not only in Guatemala but in Central America and Mexico. And I discovered that the catalog really exists, and in some institutions, they would costume the girls to sell them. So I decided to tell about that and to use the costume as one of the elements of the film.
But the other thing was — girls more than boys, because we interviewed some boys too — girls are really courageous telling their stories because they want to stop it. But even if they have all those qualities, they are still trying to keep safe a small girl inside them, and there is a moment when they transform the interview into a kind of fairy tale. And I wanted to keep the film close to reality and close to their own language.
FW: Folklore is a common motif in Latin American films, including your own. Why do you think Latin American cinema has such a close relationship with folklore?
Bustamante: I prefer to call it magical realism. I think there is a little bit of folklore in magical realism, but in the Western world, people understand it as an artistic movement or as folklore. But in a real way, it’s a lifestyle.
Understanding ghosts in a truly Latin American way is understanding that ghosts are not the bad guys who want to kill us because they are dead, then they are bad. Ghosts are people who are protecting us. They are ancestors; they are guides. And sure, they can haunt us, but only if we have something to pay.
FW: Of course, one of the key elements of Rita’s success is its ensemble, and I think the young actors are phenomenal. How did you find the cast?
Bustamante: Yeah, they are. We did a cold casting in the whole country. We had 5000 girls come to the casting, and we kept 300. We have an acting school in Guatemala that we built in 2012 when we started doing Ixcanul, so they were made part of the school, and they really transformed their personal goals.
The teenagers wanted to be famous. But when they knew the subject of the film, they transformed it into a social goal. They just wanted to be the voice for other girls. They worked in a very unique way, and I think that we can feel it in the film — their collaboration. It’s not just a script thing. The girls are there.
FW: Why do you think it’s important for people in the rest of the world to hear this story?
Bustamante: I think that for decades and decades, we have been using the sentence that kids are the future of the world. And we don’t notice — or maybe we didn’t want to be confronted about — the fact that they are the present, and it’s today that we have to take care of them, not tomorrow.
And I think it’s happening. That particular situation happened in Guatemala, but it’s not hard to be understood by people in other countries, and I think they will change our story if we give them the tools. Because, in a way, we adults — we don’t want to really change our brain. Our brain is fighting against the change. Their brain is fighting for change. So we need them.
Rita streams on Shudder beginning November 22.
