The beginning of a ritual where two women are involved. A girls transition to a full women? A couple’s union? or perhaps the departure of innocence?. This is the first scene that we see in the Guatemala’s film submission for the Academy Awards “Ixcanul” directed by Jayro Bustamante

Maria (Maria Mercedes Coroy) is a seventeen year old girl who lives with her parents on the slopes of an active volcano en Guatemala. Maria’s dad Manuel (Manuel Antún) works in a coffee plantation with his wife Juana (María Telón). Maria is a curious girl and of course she is interested in boys, among the farmers is Pepe, her love interested and the one who will take her most sacred possession for a girl, her virginity. At the same time Maria’s parents have arranged a wedding with Ignacio one of the managers of the plantation, a sort of powerful guy to them. This will assure some future for Manuel, Juana and Maria, the idea of keep their land and a house.

In a chain of events Maria get pregnant of Pepe, who ran away from to the United States, looking for a better life. This situation complicates Juana and Manuel’s plan of getting Maria married to Ignacio. They are naive and Ignacio knows how to manipulate them. He is the representation of change, how dirty is society and how can control weak people, using mean tricks, like ignorance.

Ixcanul is spoken in Mayan for most of the film, which makes the movie more mysterious for the audience. In a tradition of films spoken in more friendly languages, the risk pays off. Like Apocalypto or The Passion of Christ spoken in unused languages brings life to the movie and create a sense of more down and dirty experience.

The film explore family values, traditions, Mayan myths and also how modern society is responsible of Indian cultural demise. Ixcanul tales the tale in a cyclical way getting into a full closure helping the audience to see Maria starting as a seventeen year old girl, becoming a woman right thru our eyes, just for the sake of her familiy future.