Reviews
La hija del Puma (1994)
Companion Piece to Men With Guns
In spite of being a movie out of print and not in the NYT filmography for the director, and in spite of being made with a low budget before the days of inexpensive digital processing, this is a very strong movie, based on the book of the same name, and taking the view of a Mayan girl from the highlands of Guatemala. It reveals to the viewer a sequence of information just as the information became available to the girl, so the movie is a process of discovery. If you know the history of the Guatemalan 36 year war (1960 - 1996) and if you have read the Nobel Laureate, Rigoberta Menchu, then you will already have this information, and yet the movie will still shock and disturb and move you with indigenous visions. Don't see it with friends if you do not want them to see you cry.