The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education and the Socialist Project present La Llorona as the next film in our ongoing FilmSocial series.

La Llorona (Guatemala, 2019.) is the modern re-imagining of the Mexican and Central American folktale about a vengeful ghost who roams near bodies of water mourning her dead children whom she killed after discovering her unfaithful husband. Director and screenwriter Jayro Bustamante places the legend inside contemporary Guatemala at a particularly turbulent time. Retired Guatemalan general Enrique Monteverde is being tried for orchestrating a brutal genocide against native Mayans in the 1980s. Now elderly and ailing he lives comfortably with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, but is haunted by his past.

This is the third film in our special series exploring the topic of imperialism. Jayro Bustamante uses La Llorona as a way to explore Guatemala’s violent and racist history. The ramifications of the Spanish colonization of Guatemala is still felt today in its race and class struggles. The movie is based on the real events surrounding the presidency of José Efraín Ríos Montt from 1982 to 1983 where he oversaw one of the bloodiest periods in the Guatemalan Civil War. Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013 for the systematic massacre of indigenous communities under the guise of fighting communist insurgents. The verdict was overturned days later.

The film will be followed by a short presentation and general discussion on the politics and implications of the film’s subject today.