Volcano Ishkanul

The film criticizes racism and machismo, prevalent in modern Guatemala. The issue of trafficking in children (including newborns) is also touched on, a problem especially relevant for Guatemala in the 1990s.

The picture also shows the rural communities of Guatemala, whose inhabitants live in extreme poverty, do not speak Spanish and do not have access to basic social services.

The film shows various aspects of the worldview of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala, their traditions and history. The film takes place against a background of green coffee plantations, volcanic sand and dusty roads.

Maria, a young Kakchikelskaya girl, 17 years old, wants to change her fate. She is shy, taciturn, and more often communicates with people only with her eyes.

Despite Maria’s parents agreeing to marry her with Ignacio, a wealthy plantation worker, she continues to chat with Pepe’s childhood friend. Pepe tries to seduce Mary and promises to take her to the USA .

Maria spends the night with Pepe and soon finds out that she is pregnant. Pepe alone leaves the village, and Mary's mother, Juan, is trying to provoke a miscarriage in her daughter, but to no avail. Time passes and Juana begins to rejoice at her future grandson: she supports her daughter and helps tell everything to Mary's father. Together they try to negotiate with Ignacio, the bridegroom of Mary, who is outraged by the pregnancy of the bride and threatens to expel the family from the plantation. Trying to save her family from losing her job and getting rid of snakes that flooded the fields, Mary follows the old traditions and walks barefoot across the field. A poisonous snake bites her. Parents and Ignacio take her to a hospital in Guatemala . Doctors manage to save her and her newborn child, but taking advantage of the fact that Maria’s family does not speak Spanish, they inform them that the child is dead and they are forced to sign a refusal by deception.

Maria does not believe that her child is dead, and after a few days digs up the coffin and with horror understands that there are only bricks there: her daughter was stolen. The hospital staff agreed with Ignacio - the only one who knows Spanish. Ignacio does not terminate the engagement and offers Maria's father to actually sell him a daughter in exchange for maintaining a job on the plantation.

The film ends with the scene of preparations for the wedding, when Maria’s mother does her daughter’s hair and covers her face with a crumpled white veil.

The volcano symbolizes the life of Mary. Like her, the volcano is about to begin to erupt, but in the end this does not happen; Mary wants to escape from the world in which she is, wants to see what is outside the community, but she does not succeed.

The film does not use a soundtrack, and instead the viewer hears sounds that help create an atmosphere and give the truth of the story. The roar of the volcano, the voices in the night, the whisper of the wind accompany the development of the plot.

Ishkanul Volcano is a Guatemalan film that has received the largest number of international awards and nominations in the history of Central American cinema. ^[6]

• Maria Mercedes Koroy - Maria
• Maria Thelon - Juan
• Manuel Manuel Antoon - Manuel
• Justo Lorenzo - Ignacio
• Marvin Koroy - Pepe