By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Giuliana Santa Cruz, Ángela Quevedo and Alejandra Vásquez
Written and directed by Jayro Bustamante
La Casa de Producción and Shudder
There is power in the fantastic. Myths and fairy tales have been around since humans first started wandering this earth, and there are no signs we will ever abandon them. They can be cautionary tales that help us learn how to avoid danger. Or fables that hint at ways to be better fellow humans. In film, using the added magical elements of myth and lore in realistic situations can serve for more than just teaching lessons. These magical realism films soften the harsh realities of life, particularly when life is crueler than imagined horrors. As Drop Dead Fred helps a woman deal with her abusive mother, Pan’s Labyrinth too helps a child process the horrors of war and her horrors at home. In Jayro Bustamante’s film RITA, which had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival ahead of heading to Shudder, fantastical storytelling helps soften the blow of a very recent – and very real – Guatemalan tragedy.
RITA is a fictionalized version of a horrific incident that occurred in 2017. It is a well-known travesty in Guatemala, and to audiences there, the film will likely feel like watching an inevitable and despicable trainwreck coming. But given that the incident is not as commonly known outside the country, even with coverage in The New York Times and the BBC, the truth that comes out in the film as it did in real life will be treated like a spoiler here.
The film’s version of events is carried by the central character, Rita (Giuliana Santa Cruz). Her voiceover brings us into the world of this home for girls, far away from their families. While the presumed intention of the home is noble, it functions more like a prison than a safe haven. The girls are split into themed groups, each associated with fantastical ways of dressing and behaving. Rita is sorted into the angels’ dorm and must don feathered wings, or else. She finds out the “or else” quite quickly, though the reasons for the tightly banded groups are more nuanced than first appears.
This hidden, but eventually apparent, thread of information unfurling is a common pattern in RITA. Some elements of the fantastic in the film feel like forced innocence in the story being told through a 13-year-old’s eyes, but these girls are much more versed in the ways of the world than they first appear. And the home they have been forced into by police or their families is more sinister than first impressions.
Bustamante has created a world of crushing reality and cruelty, with beauty and celebration around it. Though the story and the lives of these girls up to the end are hellish, he is able to show the beauty in their friendships and resilience. The magical realism helps them soften their harsh world, but it also amplifies the beauty that is present in measured doses.
Much of RITA relies on the performances by the girls. Nearly all the film’s running time is focused on their faces as they deal with cruelty or scheme for freedom. All of the actresses were amateurs, recruited and educated by Bustamante for this film specifically. As he explained it, Guatemala does not have the same industry and infrastructure for film production like many other countries do. In order to cast all of these young girls, he had to find them and make them actresses. Even with the young and inexperienced cast, they all seem to pull off their roles as written with a feeling of realism.
Given the truth behind the film, RITA is hard to watch, but film is not always meant to be easy. Bustamante manages to give the incident the needed gravity and devastation, with a dose of fantasy to ease the journey.
