The Weeping Woman

The legend of La Llorona, the ghost of a woman who in her endless despair drowns her own children, is transformed in this film about the trials against the infamous general Efraín Rios Montt. After 40 years of gruesome civil war in Guatemala, Montt staged a coup and took power in the country in 1982, whereupon he instigated a genocide against the indigenous Maya people Ixil.

Director Jayro Bustamante blends fantasy, horror, and drama in The Weeping Woman, a strong and genre-inspired interpretation of the atrocities committed under general Montten sterk og sjangerpreget fortolkning av grusomhetene som general Montt's rule in the 1980s. Most of the action takes place in the general's home, where he awaits the outcome of the trial against him together with his family, and assisted by his new maid, the young Maya woman Alma.

Jayro Bustamante (f. 1977) from Guatemala has worked and studied film in several countries, and got his international breakthrough with Ixcanul in 2015, which screened at film festivals all over the world. Bustamante has later made two more feature films which complete his trilogy of films about the ills of modern Guatemala. He is one of the directors in focus at this year's festival.