La Llorona main backdrop
La Llorona main poster

La Llorona

Visit website

6.4/10 • 325

2019-07-251h 37m

ThrillerHorrorDrama

The past will haunt you.

Accused of the genocide of Mayan people, retired general Enrique is trapped in his mansion by massive protests. Abandoned by his staff, the indignant old man and his family must face the devastating truth of his actions and the growing sense that a wrathful supernatural force is targeting them for his crimes.

Directors
Jayro Bustamante
Writters
Jayro Bustamante
Editors
Gustavo Matheu

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. María Mercedes Coroy

    María Mercedes Coroy

    Alma

  2. Sabrina De La Hoz

    Sabrina De La Hoz

    Natalia

  3. Margarita Kénefic

    Margarita Kénefic

    Carmen

  4. Julio Díaz

    Julio Díaz

    Enrique

  5. María Telón

    María Telón

    Valeriana

  6. Juan Pablo Olyslager

    Juan Pablo Olyslager

    Letona

  7. Ayla-Elea Hurtado

    Ayla-Elea Hurtado

    Sara

  8. Enrique Argüello

    Enrique Argüello

    Abogado

  9. Alejandra Colom

    Alejandra Colom

    Periodista

Reviews1

View Reviews
tmdb28039023 Avatar

tmdb28039023

Aug 30, 2022

8/10

"The fantastic level and the realistic level are the two levels upon which we live," Richard Burton said in The Night of the Iguana. La Llorona — not to be confused with the Curse/Legend of La Llorona — operates equally well on both levels, which in this case we might re-label the legendary level and the historical level. Enrique Monteverde (Julio Díaz) is an aging, infirm, and paranoid Guatemalan dictator (but then aren’t they all, eventually?) who at the beginning of the film is being tried for the genocide of Ma-yan natives in the 1980s. We see two trial scenes; the most effective is a zoom-in of a K'iche' Mayan indigenous woman giving testimony of the atrocities she witnessed, and to which she was subjected, by soldiers of the Guatemalan army while an interpreter translates her words, ending with: “I am not ashamed to tell what happened to me; I hope you are not ashamed to impart justice” (ironically, the judges refer to her as “witness 82”, dehumanizing her even further). Monteverde (based on Efraín Ríos Montt, a real-life Guatemalan war criminal) is found guilty, but the verdict is overturned and he is allowed to return home to his wife Carmen (Margarita Kenéfic),his daughter Natalia (Sabrina De La Hoz), and his granddaughter Sara (Ayla-Elea Hurtado) (Carlos,Sara’s father, whom Enrique and Carmen did not approve of, disappeared under circumstances that are mysterious only to Natalia). All the house servants have resigned except Valeriana (María Telón), whom Carmen suspects is Enrique's illegitimate daughter, and bodyguard Letona (Juan Pablo Olyslager). Meanwhile, the people have gathered around the house to protest day and night, effectively keeping the family under siege. It is then that the mysterious and silent native Alma (María Mercedes Co-roy) arrives, the new servant of whom Sara quickly grows fond. La Llorona is not a literal depiction of the Hispanic-American legend, but alludes to it through related imagery, for instance when Alma teaches Sara to hold her breath underwater. Monteverde sometimes wanders around the house at night claiming to hear a woman crying, but this could be a consequence of his deteriorating mental state. The title of the film may be a reference to the massacre in the village of La Llorona in 1981 or, in general, intended to represent Guatemala as a mother mourning the disappearance and murder of thousands of her children. The ending of the film, however, makes it clear that supernatural forces are also at play. I’m ambivalent about this aspect of the plot. On the one hand it’s almost unnecessary; this material is very powerful on its own, and the addition of a fantasy element risks detracting from the harsh reality it deals with. But on the other hand, and this is very unfortunate, revenge from beyond the grave is the closest Monteverde is going to come to paying for his crimes, and in real life we don't even have that con-solation (and it would be foolish to seek retribution for real-world grievances in a work of fiction, as Tarantino has done recently; by making Monteverde a stand-in for Ríos Montt, but not Ríos Montt himself, co-writer/director Jayro Bustamante avoids the revisionist pitfalls of, say, Inglorious Basterds). Fortunately, this internal debate is moot because La Llorona is the rare horror film that doubles as social criticism and hits the mark squarely in each endeavor; this is thinking man’s horror cinema (I was going to write that La Llorona would be something like The Official (Ghost) Story, but actually there are ghosts too in Luis Puenzo's film; figuratively or literally, there always are in this kind of story). Bustamante has created a work of art that one can approach from either of two different sets of narrative values, and each of them is a winning approach all the way from its opening scene to the spi-ne-chilling wail that closes it.

Media

  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster
  • La Llorona poster

Recommendations

  • Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant main backdrop

    Hornblower: The Examination for Lieutenant

    7.3

  • No Backdrop

    The Last House on Cemetery Lane

    3.5

  • September main backdrop

    September

    6.8

  • Make It Soul main backdrop

    Make It Soul

    6.8

  • Bunny Yeager's Nude Las Vegas main backdrop

    Bunny Yeager's Nude Las Vegas

    4.5

  • X-Cross main backdrop

    X-Cross

    6.2

  • Stargate SG-1: True Science main backdrop

    Stargate SG-1: True Science

    7.7

  • Koko-di Koko-da main backdrop

    Koko-di Koko-da

    5.7

  • Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet main backdrop

    Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet

    7.4

  • 10,000 Km main backdrop

    10,000 Km

    6.1

  • The Bridge Curse main backdrop

    The Bridge Curse

    6.5

  • Slalom main backdrop

    Slalom

    6.7

  • No Backdrop

    The Wailer 2

    6.7

  • Hatchet III main backdrop

    Hatchet III

    5.7

  • Death of Me main backdrop

    Death of Me

    5.0

  • Mass main backdrop

    Mass

    7.5

  • Motherly main backdrop

    Motherly

    6.0

  • Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa main backdrop

    Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

    7.3

  • Ravenous main backdrop

    Ravenous

    5.9

  • Simply Black main backdrop

    Simply Black

    5.9

Status
Released
Original Language
Spanish
Budget
--
Revenue
--
Keywords
war crimesdictatortrialgenocideguatemalawar criminalindigenous peoplesguatemalan civil war