Jayro Bustamante – Director – Ixcanul
FRED’s Nicolò Comotti meets filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, whose feature film debut Ixcanul was chosen to compete for the Golden Bear at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
Jayro talks with us about Ixcanul, how he conceived the idea and how it was to go out and shoot it. He also talks about the cast, with its vast majority made up of amateur players, and how close they came to the actual characters they portray on the film, as well as how it has been for them to be in Berlin at one of the biggest film festivals in the world.
Plot: María, a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya, lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano – the titular Ixcanul. She is set to be married to the farm’s foreman. But María longs to discover the world on the other side of the mountain, a place she cannot even imagine. And so she seduces a coffee-harvester who wants to escape to the USA. When this man leaves her behind, María discovers her own world and culture anew.