- Mexico
TRAGIC JUNGLE
Synopsis
The 1920s, on the border between Mexico and British Honduras. Agnes, a young Belizean woman, flees an English landowner into the jungle. There she encounters a group of Mexican chicleros tapping the resin of sapodilla trees for chewing gum, who take her along. Her presence changes the men: she awakens desire, mistrust and the suspicion that the stranger is not what she seems. In “Tragic Jungle” (Mexico 2020, original title “Selva trágica”), Yulene Olaizola tells of a forest that takes people in and does not give them back.
The film draws loosely on the Maya legend of the Xtabay, a female demon who lures men into the forest and leads them to ruin – and leaves open whether Agnes is a woman the men see through their superstition, or the legend itself. Olaizola’s fifth feature premiered in 2020 in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival and later screened at the New York Film Festival. “Tragic Jungle” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020.
Festival
Shown at the 2020 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
