Rita Fantasia Film Review: Haunting, Harrowing Tragedy

Jayro Bustamante delivers one of the most impactful movies of the year in Rita, a difficult, haunting depiction of a real-life tragedy. 

Now, he returns with Rita, which had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Cheval Noir section. 

If you thought La Llorona was difficult to watch, Rita is even more harrowing, as it depicts the tragedy that occurred in 2017 at the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home in Guatemala, where 41 young girls were burned to death while protesting against the orphanage’s inhumane, and abusive, conditions. Bustamante doesn’t shy away from directly showing this abuse, which has stained the walls of its orphanage. Any order that isn’t respected may result in electrocution. At some point, one of the guards attempts to rape a newcomer named Rita (Giuliana Santa Cruz) when she is alone in the bathroom, and, after the girls rebel against the way the guards treat them, they are forced to clean their own pee with their bed sheets. 

These shocking moments are exacerbated through Bustamante’s use of magical realism. He shoots the movie at a 2.75:1 aspect ratio, infusing the environment the girls live in with as many otherworldly images as possible. For starters, each girl is dressed like an angel, which already signals how spiritually charged the film is going to be when it eventually reaches the point of the tragedy. But even before that, the sky in the orphanage is painted with evocative clouds and thunder, as if the characters are nearing to touch Heaven while they are stuck inside purgatory. It’s a striking contrast that slowly intensifies itself as the film progresses. 

Even when nothing is happening in regards to the characters and story, the images are so cathartic that it slowly creeps up on you and tears you apart into a million pieces. It may seem like a daunting task to depict such a horrifying event with the lens of Guillermo del Toro’s magical realism, especially when each element of the story and protagonists have to be treated with the utmost respect and care for the victims. However, Bustamante more than pulls it off. The images are so evocative and filled with so much emotional power that, even when the film is over, your body is still processing what it has just witnessed. The use of an even wider aspect ratio helps add a sense of scale and immersiveness to the story. 

As I watched the movie, it didn’t take long for me to be swept in, and to be heartbroken by how Bustamante depicts the tragedy. Perhaps there are several sections that feel a bit too stylized, but they never detract from the ultimate impact of the tragedy. In my personal view, it makes us think far deeper on what occurred than if he had used a traditional stylistic treatment to depict the abuse the girls underwent every single day inside the orphanage. And none of what Bustamante depicts is exaggerated. He draws what he treats from real-life events but punctuates it with imagery so profound it’s designed to make you sit with what is on-screen and never forget what has happened to these girls through the inhumane treatment they did not deserve.

It’s even more impressive when you find out that none of the actors who play the girls in the orphanage are professionally trained. During a Q&A with Fantasia’s artistic director Mitch Davis, Bustamante revealed that over five hundred girls applied to be cast in the film, with three hundred retained for the picture. Every actor, whether in a big or small part, is phenomenal and root their portrayal with stark realism and humanity. 

In her first breakout role, Giuliana Santa Cruz gives a knockout turn as Rita that will often charm and stun you. Bustamante never shies away from how deeply human all of these victims were, and surprisingly gives them moments of levity, heart, and even humor in the film. In its most intimate moments, Bustamante captures one playful scene of Rita and two other orphans smoking weed, as it’s their only form of ‘escape’ from reality. The scene adds much-needed levity to the situation, and it’s even more impressive because the use of comedy for such a harrowing event shouldn’t work. However, it’s only used sparingly, and as a coping mechanism for the girls to continue on and look for the bright side of the situation. 

Bustamante also uses comedy as a way to show how sickening the people who looked after the girls were. In one scene where the orphanage’s social worker takes pictures of Rita for the immigration officer, the worker asks the guards to leave the room so she can feel more comfortable. The guard, who attempted to rape Rita at the beginning of the film, asks how he will be able to see the pictures. The photograph in the room tells him not to worry; he’ll send the pictures over on WhatsApp. 

The audience laughed during my screening, as the line was unexpected, but it indicates that none of these people treat the girls as children or, simply, as human. They are instead treated as objects to fulfill their sickening desires, with their bodies likely shamed and sexualized on the private WhatsApp chat. Once you realize this, you may regret having laughed at that line (or, in the case of the Fantasia audience, having meowed before the film started). 

It was in that moment that Rita began to take its toll on me, with a true punch in the gut. I was already uncomfortable when the film began, and Bustamante fills the screen with enough vivid images to make your  retina take days to process it all, but even more so when actions that may seem humorous on the surface are quite more sinister than you’d think. When the movie ends with its most spiritually potent shot and cuts to the credits, it’s all your mind will think of. 

It’s been a day since I’ve seen the film; I’m still profoundly shaken by this incredibly moving, harrowing tale of tragedy, and may never recover from the experience of seeing it in a cinema. Unfortunately, it will not be the case for most audiences, who will have to stream it on Shudder this November, but if the film ever gets a limited theatrical release and is playing near you, don’t miss it. Watch it. Think about it. Spread the word. 

Rita premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 25, 2024. The film will be released on Shudder on November 22, 2024. Read our reviews of Cadejo Blanco and Electrophilia!