Ixcanul is the pregnant Guatemalan coffee farmer movie of the year. I’m not saying it’s the best pregnant Guatemalan coffee farmer movie ever, but it’s definitely in the top five. I know I’ve used those lines for a lot of obscurely specific movie descriptions in the past, like Bullhead and Rust and Bone, but I like it when movies lend themselves to an outrageous logline. I celebrate them.
Maria (Maria Mercedes Coroy) is preparing to marry Ignacio (Justo Lorenzo) when he leaves for the city, expecting to wed when he returns. While Ignacio is gone, Maria loses her virginity and gets pregnant. Meanwhile the coffee harvest is plagued by snakes so the farmers try to eradicate the snakes and save their crop.
Ixcanul gives us access to a small sliver of Mayan culture in Guatemala. The style of the film is very much to presenting this world to us uninterrupted. There are long static takes of dialogue between characters, and even more wide shots of characters walking along the mountain or roadside, just so we can see what their life is like.
It is supported by the drama of course. Maria has a lot of decisions to make about her situation and her relationships, and she’s supported by her elders. Harvest workers are cheated out of their pay and blackmailed into working the next harvest to pay off a fabricated “debt.” We get to live with them for 90 minutes but this is someone’s entire life.
I walk away from Ixcanul not with the dramatic story as much as the experience of seeing something I haven’t seen before. Its win at the Berlin Film Festival and distribution by Kino Lorber makes it likely you’ll get to see it also. It’s lovely to spend time in a different culture and witness a new voice.
Image via Kino Lorber
Fred Topel is a veteran journalist since 1999 and has written for CraveOnline since 2006. See Fred on the ground at Sundance, SXSW, Telluride or in Los Angeles and follow him on Twitter @FredTopel, Instagram @Ftopel.
