Director: Tatiana Huezo.
Writer: Tatiana Huezo.
Stars: Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Marya Membreño, Blanca Itzel Pérez, Giselle Barrera Sánchez, Camila Gaal, Alejandra Camacho, Mayra Batalla, José Estrada, Julián Guzmán Girón.
Synopsis: Life in a town at war seen through the eyes of three young girls on the path to adolescence.
It is unsafe to live in the town of San Miguel, Jalisco, Mexico. Even though it is far from big cities and full of lethal animals and insects, the danger comes from the unseen men that have conquered the place and now reign it with terror. The vulnerability only increases if you’re a girl or a woman. Being a girl is an immediate threat in a place where showing your femininity, for example wearing long hair, may result in an unexpected kidnapping and disappearance. Consequently, as women are concerned, there are no girls in this town.
Tatiana Huezo, a Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker, has cemented her body of work by showing the horrors of Mexico in documentary form. The current state of the country, which was worsened when former President Felipe Calderón started the “War on Drugs” in 2006, has become a constant feature in Huezo’s filmography. In Absences, she presented the heartbreak of a mother and a wife trying to move on with her life after the forced disappearance of her son and husband five years prior. In Tempestad, she followed two women as they struggle to survive in a country dominated by drug dealers and haunted by forced disappearances.
Now, Huezo has her feature debut with Prayers for the Stolen. The story is based on the fictional book of the same name by American-Mexican author Jennifer Clement, but it portrays the harsh reality of living in certain areas of Mexico, and the unavoidable danger of being a woman in said country.
Divided in two different timelines and covering the childhood and early adolescence of its protagonist, Prayers for the Stolen is the coming-of-age story of Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González as a child // Marya Membreño as the teenager), a girl that lives in the Mexican mountains of San Miguel. Her entertainment consists of watching snakes, running around the hills, and playing in the river with her best friends Paula (Camila Gaal // Alejandra Camacho) and María (Blanca Itzel Pérez // Giselle Barrera Sánchez). Nevertheless, they face a harsh awakening when Juana, another girl from the area, is kidnapped, never to be seen again.
Slowly, Ana starts facing the reality of her life and the town where she lives: men are scant since many went to the United States looking for money and opportunities (illustrated in a curious scene where everyone gets together in the only place in town with phone reception); the government representatives are either corrupt or outnumbered by the local drug kingpins; and schools and businesses are forced to pay their “protection rate” to said drug-dealers. These facts are presented through Ana’s eyes, who is still too young and naïve to really understand what is happening, but who will face trauma that will teach her to protect herself from unknown and unsaid threats.
Huezo, who also wrote the script, presents the unraveling of the tension in a sly and accumulative fashion. While the camera portrays the way of living in such a place, it slowly shows the horrific images that Ana witnesses. The terror is disseminated by the hushed conversations amongst adults, the stark prohibitions established by Rita (Mayra Batalla), Ana’s mother, and the decisions made by those around Ana, including her friend Margarito (José Estrada), who moves away from her as time goes by. There is a fine and delicate thread maintaining everything in order, but it can be broken unexpectedly and irreparably, and more likely, it will be shattered once the girls become women.
Prayers for the Stolen is a prime example of the horror of being a hostage of gendered violence and of not knowing who to trust. Is the new teacher who’s asking uncomfortable questions a spy or a friend? Is Margarito growing up to become another kingpin or can he be saved? Are the police there to protect or to be bribed? The women of the story – who dominate the film and the place for the mere reason that they are the ones left behind – form an existence based on panic and uncertainty, a survival strategy that is passed on to the girls.
Filmed by the clear and blunt eye of cinematographer Dariela Ludlow, the camera doesn’t shy away from showing the most harrowing scenes that mark the girls’ reality. This trauma can come from non-violent scenes, such as when Ana and Paula get their hair cut to “make them look ugly” and boyish, or from violent events, such as when Ana witnesses the aftermath of Juanita’s disappearance. Slowly – sometimes too slowly – Huezo illustrates the vices, ways of living, scarcities, and worries of the town.
The film’s direction creates a panicked mood where sound and unseen events create distress and expectation. In this environment, the girls grow up. The dangerous environment is reinforced by Rita’s silent and hostile concern; and still, Ana, Paula, and María try to live their lives, only showing traces of trauma in their conversations and learned attitudes. While the shock is constant, the bond between the girls is the most powerful thing of the film. Whatever they’re facing, they’re dealing with it together, with Huezo celebrating this bond.
Even if the film loses focus somewhere in the middle, it maintains its intensity through the performances. The older actors offer a smooth transition into the teenage years, a period that brings to life the possibilities that were distant threats in the past. In one of the most shocking scenes of the film, Huezo liberates the scary legends and fears in a scene that shows that Rita’s exaggerations were justified. In this regard, Mayra Batalla as Rita offers the most memorable performance. With her apprehension, Batalla becomes the steady face in a story that changes its main characters, presenting a mother’s despair and the Mexican roughness that distinguishes them.
Prayers for the Stolen joins a lengthy list of Mexican films that present a reality of living in a country marked by corruption, impunity, and violence. Still, this film stands out by showing the additional worries, injustices, and threats faced by girls and women. The last 15 minutes present the climactic ending of a story that was boiling with anticipation and dread, distinguishing Tatiana Huezo as a filmmaker that knows how to portray the feminine heartache of living in a country such as this.
