Life under the Volcano

Leah is a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya who lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano. She was betrothed to a plantation foreman. But Maria wanted to discover the world on the other side of the volcano that was completely unknown to her. She seduces a coffee harvester who wants to escape to America. But after the harvester abandoned her, Maria re-recognized her own world and culture. Director Jero Bustamante grew up in the Kachigel Maya region of Guatemala, so he chose to return here to make his film. He held a workshop and asked people around him to tell him stories about their lives, and then examined the current living conditions of the Maya people in this area. In this way he learned about the special relationship the women who lived there had with their mothers and grandmothers. The plot of the movie is full of ancient beliefs and traditional rhythms of life. The audience will see a world completely different from that in the context of globalization, and a completely unfamiliar daily life. This is not a movie about indigenous culture, but a work truly created in such a cultural atmosphere. The film won the 65th Berlin Film Festival Alfred