Overview & Historical Context
Rita, the dark fantasy horror drama, is set to release in 2024. It has been produced, directed, and co-written by one of the prominent names in Guatemalan cinema, Jayro Bustamante. Rita depicts the first major collaboration of the US alongside Guatamala and is emblematic of the dark and visually rich storytelling merged with social commentary that is characteristic of Bustamente. The film’s narrative draws upon genuine tragedies that resonate deeply with the Guatemalan society, particularly the ghastly event in 2017 that claimed the lives of dozens of girls in a state-sponsored youth shelter fire. The Rita movie captures the emotional and politically charged essence that inspired the real life event and Bustamente’s grit.
In July 2024, Rita was one of the highlighted releases in a global film festival and has since continued to rise in popularity, particularly in cinematography. Following this global debut, Bustamente Rita continued to headline film festivals before its theatrical debut in Guatamala, and later the wider public gained access through horror and genre streaming platforms.
Synopsis
This film depicts Rita’s journey as a 13-year-old girl escaping from an abusive home, seeking a place of safety and dignity. After a brief sanctuary with a compassionate diner owner, Rita is picked up by the authorities and placed in a state-run institution that claims to protect vulnerable girls. To her dismay, the shelter is a confining prison, run by corrupt staff and rigid, abusive power structures.
Inside the facility, Rita meets other girls that have separated themselves into surreal costume cliques: “Angels,” “Wolves,” “Stars,” and the like. While creative and fantastical, these groups symbolize different coping strategies within the oppressive setting. Rita is assigned to the Angels, and part of the crown-and-wing system of self-empowerment the girls created as an explanation to an inhumane world.
The brutality of the institution is one with a complete lack of magic. Abuse of every sort, physical and psychological, is rampant. The girls are beaten, starved, manipulated, and even trafficked. Still, they manage to hold onto some form of order. Myth and ritual are inextricably tied, as prophesied, an angel comes to liberate them all, and Rita’s appearance fulfills that prophecy, sparking new hope.
With rising tensions, Rita starts to experience hallucinations or visions, such as the “presence” of storm clouds in the dorm rooms, the flutter of fireflies, as well as ghostly visions. These elements are a form of symbolism that speaks towards her trauma as well as the spiritual energy that is building, dormant, within the institution. With the help of girls like Bebé, Sulmy, Gladys, and La Terca, Rita is able to form a plan to escape and burn down the very system that betrayed them.
The climax, which is a mix of fantasy and reality, is the explosion of rage, fire, and sorrow that the film is built around. The film is inspired by a historical event, and this climax is a mix of both. The ending, like the film, is ambiguous yet emotionally devastating, and forces the audience to think about blurred lines between justice, vengeance, and survival.
Cast & Characters
Giuliana Santa Cruz as Rita
As Rita, Santa Cruz gave one of the break out performances and her film debut has received accolades. The balance between anger and sorrow was further enhanced by vulnerability and fierce determination, which Santa Cruz masterfully brought to life, hence the Rita we see and the film’s emotional realism is the fantasy framework’s strong pillar.
Ángela Joana Quevedo as Sulmy
Sulmy is one of Rita’s first allies and strikes as a tough yet caring person. As one of Rita’s first allies, she provides the glue that protects her.
Alejandra Vásquez Carrillo as Bebé
The role Bebé takes on walks the line between grace and the oppressive weight of surrender and self-sacrifice. She dispenses wisdom and helps guide Rita.
André Sebastián Aldana as La Terca
La Terca is impetuous and has a mind of her own. She is a firebrand for the girls as she tends to break the rules and encourages others to do so with her.
Glendy Asturias Rucal as Gladys
Gladys increases the weight of the story’s emotional trauma. She is a silent figure whose stillness is pregnant with the weight of trauma.
Sabrina De La Hoz, Juan Pablo Olyslager, María Telón, Ernesto Molina Samperio
These actors portray the oppressive adult guardians of the institution who embody different variations of the same compassionless and cruel apathy.
Direction & Technical Aspects
Jayro Bustamante has a clear and evocative mastery of film direction. The magical realism of the film is seamlessly blended with horror, which gives the film a dreamlike yet brutally honest relationship to real-life social issues. Bustamante prioritizes emotional resonance over timeline, which enables full immersion into Rita’s inner world.
The breathtaking cinematography of Inti Briones alternates between stark institutional lighting and soft glowing fantastical imagery. The fantasy and stark reality of confinement Rita is faced with is intertwined with her imagined escape routes as the camera lingers on the audience’s discomfort.
Gaby Moreno’s “Alas” and Pascual Reyes’ score blend emotional elements that connect beautifully, “Alas” deepening the emotional subtleties while the score’s melodies and dissonance illustrates the tension between hope and horror, magic and madness.
Themes & Symbolism
Failure from Within
The film critiques self-destructive systems that try to protect “the people” and end up dehumanizing and erasing them. The state facility embodies a punitive structure within a broken system that seeks to capture, punish, and, in the most perverse of ways, “protect” the most vulnerable beings.
Child’s Play Versus Survival
The girls’ fantastical cliques and costumes speak to the ways in which they attempt to retain a semblance of self and agency, however small. Imagination acts as a defense.
Women’s Empowerment
Rita and Rita’s larger group of fellow inmates create deep emotional connections and friendships. The group’s distinct sense of belonging and togetherness becomes a refuge, but also a vehicle of rebellion and defiance.
The film challenges viewers to consider complex moral dilemmas, such as whether or not violence is an acceptable reaction to violence, especially where legal means or institutional violence has failed.
Fantasy as Defiance
Rita’s prophecies, as well as the myth of the Angel, expose the ways in which fantasy can be used to empower victims, showcasing the capacity to transform their trauma into action.Reception
Rita won critical praise for bold storytelling, its emotional depth, its unique visuals, and how it elegantly blended elements of a fairy tale and a horror story. Viewers appreciated the empathy the film showed by examining the problem of abuse and neglect through the eyes of a child. Use of magical realism, although disturbing, was necessary for the film’s poetry, which was described as haunting.
Rita debuted at a festival where it won Best Cinematography, sparking a subsequent festival run where recognition for the screenplay, direction, and performances was also received. Viewers across the globe received Rita as not just a genre film, but a work of advocacy and a tribute which highlights the need to a remember forgotten issues.
Conclusion
Rita is visually exquisite, an engaging tale of imbalance, tragedy, and defiance, as well as a deeply emotional film. Bustamante’s direction and the powerful themes of the film, along with Santa Cruz’s moving performance, makes Rita one of the most notable international films of 2024.
Rita marks the birth of the firefly; it restores the memory of lost girls in a manner that is not exploitative, but empowering, demonstrating that even when enveloped in darkness, hope can shine like a firefly in the night.
Rita is not simply a film to be watched; it is a story to experience, to etch in one’s memory, and to disseminate.
Watch Free Movies on Fmovies