Conference Keynote Event

Invoking the genres of horror and magical realism, the film is a contemporary retelling of the la llorona legend. The traditional legend of la llorona, known widely throughout Latin America and U.S. Latinx communities, tells the story of an indigenous woman who drowns the children she had out of wedlock, commits suicide, and then haunts people with her cries and wailing.

In Bustamante’s retelling, la llorona returns to avenge her children’s killing by the Guatemalan military during the civil war. Her appearance in the context of the General’s trial for genocide reverses gender and ethnic stereotypes of la llorona both as a passive victim and a murderess. As Bustamante writes in his “Director’s Statement,” La Llorona allowed him to “change those stigmas that are etched into our cultural inheritance.”

Mr. Bustamante’s previous films include Tremors (2019) and Ixcanul (2015) which was a recipient of the Alfred Bauer Prize (Golden Bear) at Berlin Film Festival and was also selected as Guatemalan entry for Academy Awards and Golden Globes.