‘Rita’ Director Jayro Bustamante On Crafting His Heart-Breaking Fairytale
Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante is unafraid of using the horror genre to tell deeply important and political stories about contemporary Guatemala and its tumultuous. His 2019 feature film La Llorona proved that to the world and he’s doing it again with his most recent film, Rita, which is now the Academy Award® Best International Feature Official Selection for Guatemala. The film, inspired by actual tragic events, is equal parts beautiful and devastating as Bustamente creates a dark yet whimsical world that aims to rip your heart and scream in your face that you need to be paying attention.
Read the full synopsis below:
While fleeing a neglectful household, thirteen-year-old Rita is placed in an oppressive state-run orphanage. Rita’s arrival provides a glimmer of hope to the girls inside, who share a prophecy that an angel will appear to release them. Encouraged by one another, the girls plan an escape to claim their freedom and expose the orphanage’s abuses of power. Based on the true story behind one of Guatemala’s most harrowing tragedies, Rita shines a light on the brave orphans whose fight for survival inspired a nationwide outcry for justice and reform.
We spoke with Bustamente about magical realism, the political power of cinema, and giving a voice to the voiceless.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Dread Central: Congratulations on Rita, a hauntingly beautiful film. Something I really love about your work is how political it is and how much you meld the political with genre elements. So I wanted to hear more about why you like using genre elements in telling these stories, especially about Guatemalan history.
Jayro Bustamante: Guatemala had a war that lasted almost four years. So for us, it’s very, very hard to talk about our dark situations because they continue hurting us. And so I think that the fantasy, the magical realism, and the horror are windows that we can open to see reality in a way that protects us from reality at the same time. It’s too close to our culture. In the Western world, you imagine that magical realism is just an artistic movement, but in reality, it’s a lifestyle for us. And in a way when my team and I make a film, we are telling a story but we are telling a lot of other stories around that story. And that story is our culture, too, and our way of communicating and people love it. So why not use it?
DC: So people who are more intimately familiar with the history that you’re pulling from, are they just as entertained and interested as American audiences by these films?
JB: Yes. Rita in particular, it was a very nice experience to show the film [in Guatemala] before showing it to the international audiences because we showed the film to the victims of the real case and the families of the girls who are not with us anymore. That was very important because we were looking for understanding if we made it well. The reaction was so nice because they really wanted to have a film. They wanted to amplify their voice and they wanted to have a story because in Guatemala when [the fire] happened in 2017, there was a kind of political movement trying to silence the case.
So they have the impression that a film can help them to never be in silence. And that was very nice because it is growing more and more and more and more and more. An example is when we started the film, we made a casting call to [all of Guatemala] and we had 5,000 girls come to the casting. We kept 300 and brought them to our acting academy in my company. When they arrived their goals were to become actresses and become famous teenagers and girls.
But when they noticed and understood the themes that we talk about in Rita, their individual goals changed into social goals. That made us so happy. They were a student in the school for 10 months, just studying. We didn’t tell them which role they would play until the last two months when we announced to them who would be Rita or who would be just a rabbit. But it didn’t matter and it doesn’t matter for them. They were so happy to be part of the voice of girls who don’t have a voice. So that was very touching.
DC: Wow, that’s incredible between the story and also how you had all of these girls shift their political awareness because of being part of Rita. I mean that’s got to feel so good to feel like and see your art having an impact.
JB: Yeah, that’s one of our internal goals, too. We’re focused on that and I don’t consider myself a filmmaker that makes one style of film. But the input I think is having something more than just entertainment to say. And I think people who are adding their talent to our goal understand that and they like that, too.
DC: Well you mentioned the girls. I wanted to hear more about why you picked Giuliana Santa Cruz for Rita because she is stunning. Her ability to carry this story is incredible. So what about her spoke to you?
JB: She came to the casting because her sister wanted to be in the film and she came just following her sister. When I met her and started talking with her, I discovered that behind those beautiful eyes, there was something else. She has a kind of that penetrating look. I knew she was Rita from the first time that I saw her.
DC: Wow, that’s incredible. I also really loved Alejandra Vásquez‘s portrayal of Bebé.
JB: Yeah, Alejandra is a teacher of life because she was every day loving herself and loving us. And that’s something so important that we forgot. Every day we have to love ourselves and love others first, and then continue living. But Alejandra really was there doing that and she’s continued doing that. Right now she’s working as a volunteer at my foundation. We have a foundation that uses movies to create a social impact in society in Guatemala. And we are bringing movies to the Mayan communities. Alejandra is part of the volunteers and part of the directive group. She’s all the time so militant. [Laughs}
And so, in a way, Bebé was transformed by her in the process.
DC: Oh really?
JB: When I started developing Bebé, I was very careful about how to use a disabled character. I was all the time asking her, “Are you OK if we make that line a little bit funnier?” And Alejandra told me “For sure! Bebé is enjoying every moment because they have a plan and they will escape. So she has to be the funny one.” [Alejandra] really wanted to be the funny one and it was a very nice experience.
DC: That’s beautiful. That’s so cool that now she volunteers with you. The power of movies is just incredible. My last question for you is what were the challenges for you in writing this script and trying to both introduce Rita as a character and create this world while also respecting the actual events that transpired?
JB: That was a very difficult decision to take and I decided to do a lot of research to better better what was happening in these kinds of institutions. And I did that research in Guatemala and after that, I moved to different countries in Central America. I discovered [these places], even in Mexico, that there is a common point in the story of these institutions where the girls say stop, ask for help, and make a revolution against the system. At that moment adults start saying they are not girls, they’re delinquents, they’re dangerous, they are monsters.
So I said, “We have to break that storytelling and we have to make the people understand that they are more than just the girls. That they are fantastic creators and we are missing that power that they have.” That was the first idea that gave me the other steps to continue to tell the story.
Rita is streaming now on Shudder.
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