Guatemala. Maria lives with her parents far from the city, on a coffee plantation on the mountainside of a volcano. She is 17 and slowly discovering her body when she meets the man she will have to marry: the son of the plantation’s boss. But she tries to escape her designated fate and gets pregnant by another man, endangering the fragile balance of the whole family.

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The story of Jayro Bustamante himself is more interesting than his film: born in Guatemala, he was brought up on the plateau during the civil war before he went to Europe to explore his cinematic dreams. When he went back to his native country to direct his first movie, he decided to film that which influenced his own identity: the austere beauty of the landscape, the severity of the cultures, the weight of traditions – all seen through the eyes of a young woman who wants to escape a fate others have decided for her. Ixcanul is classic auteur cinema, with its own qualities and faults – long sequences and silences that are drawn out for no reason, a thin screenplay, a lack of energy. The winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, director Jayro Bustamante will no doubt have the chance to confirm the talent revealed in this debut, which is half in earnest, half in jest. Career to be continued.