Written by Lisandro Sanchez and Jayro Bustamante
Directed by Jayro Bustamante
Starring Margarita Kenéfic, María Mercedes Coroy, Julio Diaz and Sabrina De La Hoz
Language: Spanish
Running time: 1 hour and 37 minutes
Not Rated - language, violence, thematic elements

by Audrey Callerstrom

It’s helpful to understand a few things going into Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona. Although the top results of a Google search might mislead you, this is not the same as the English-language film The Curse of La Llorona, nor is it related to another film of the same title in post-production. Additionally, llorona (which loosely translates to “wailing woman”) is a Latin American legend about a woman who drowned her two children and then herself after finding her husband with another woman (there are other origin stories as well). Director Jayro Bustamante recalls being terrified of la llorona as a boy, and that he was told that hearing her cries was a sign that he deserved punishment. Lastly, Guatemala, where La Llorona is shot and takes place, is well-known for having some of the highest levels of violence, poverty and inequality in the region. There’s more history here, of course, than I can sum up in a film review, but it’s also worth noting that in 2012, former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide, but the verdict was overturned years later due to his inability to serve his sentence (he died shortly thereafter).