At the Panama Int’l Film Festival (IFF Panama) to present his latest film “Rita” and give a masterclass, Guatemala’s acclaimed filmmaker Jayro Bustamante sat down with Variety to discuss his upcoming projects, “Mountains of Fire” (“Cordillera de Fuego”) which has just completed post-production, and his first comedy, the adaptation of 1998 Spanish romcom “Nada en la nevera” (roughly translated to “Nothing in the Fridge”).

Bustamante, whose films have represented his country three times in the Oscars’ Best International Feature category (“Ixcanul,” “Temblores” and “La Llorona”), is known for using the power of film for dealing with such thorny issues as Indigenous rights, systemic oppression and LGBTQ+ rights.

“Mountains of Fire” began as a social awareness project, which he decided would be more impactful as a feature film, according to Bustamante, who spent his childhood in a Mayan community by Guatemala’s Lake Atitlán.  

In the action drama penned by Bustamante, Luis Pineda and Margarita Kénefic, two volcanologists, played by “Ixcanul’s” Maria Mercedes Coroy and Tatiana Palomo, visit indigenous communities to warn and evacuate them from the fire mountain range where a new volcano is forming. It’s at this time that they begin to uncover the corruption behind the country and its government, and how these ethnic communities are not a priority for the powers that be.

Bustamante recalls the last time a volcano erupted in Guatemala was in 2019 where three indigenous communities were buried under the lava. “It was described as a natural phenomenon but for people to die is a social catastrophe,” he pointed out. “These people had already been displaced and sent to live in these dangerous areas so we’re talking about a case of ethnic, racial and social discrimination,” he said.

To prepare his feature, Bustamante set up his itinerant acting school, Academia Ixcanul, which he founded in 2012 and has already trained as many as 1,500 actors in Guatemala.

“We got the two indigenous communities involved, the Cakchiquel and Tzutujil, and gave acting lessons to entire families, from children to parents and grandparents,” he said of the four-month pre-production process.

Lessons in stunt acting were also given as there are quite a lot of action scenes, he added. Training in crew skills were also imparted.

The drama is produced by his company La Casa de Producción alongside his Paris-based Les Film du Volcán and his Ixcanul Foundation. He’s proud to say that it’s 100% Guatemalan, with no foreign financing involved. “We want to prove that we’re capable of making 100% Guatemalan films, with no outside backing at all,” he said. His past films gradually increased their Guatemalan participation until “Rita” which is 90% Guatemalan” and now, “Mountains of Fire.”

Regarding its distribution, Bustamante pointed out that given the importance of the message, he would eschew a festival berth or theatrical release and aim straight for a streaming platform for its distribution.

Given that only 9% of the population in Guatemala have access to a cinema and the majority use their phones to watch audiovisual fare, he said: “It’s not ideal but if the phone is what will allow people to see content that will make them reflect, then I’ll set aside my filmmaker’s ego,” he mused.

Meanwhile, he is writing the first comedy he plans to direct, moving the setting of the Spanish romcom “Nada en la nevera” to a Latin American backdrop, most likely in Mexico. Puerto Rico-based producer-distributor Cynthia Wiesner of Wiesner Distribution (“El Cuartito”) is lead producing the film.

The original romcom centers on Carlota, a 27-year-old ambulance driver in Madrid, a hopeless romantic obsessed with finding the perfect man. For her, being in love is the only thing that matters, and her growing anxiety pushes her to desperately seek the one. During a routine shift, she encounters a man with food poisoning and immediately believes he’s her one true love.

“What’s truly fascinating about the project is how humanity has yet to make a meaningful shift in understanding emotional relationships and forming genuine connections. We’re still deeply attached to the idea of romantic love and the notion of possession,” he mused.

“We also want to explore the growing relevance of self-love. How can we cultivate self-love without it becoming a barrier to forming connections with others? Instead of focusing on our relationship with ourselves and others, we create new systems – it’s not polyamory, but a mix of self-love, independence, and, deep down, a constant search for someone to help us understand ourselves better,” Bustamante said.

He added: “That’s what I found appealing about the project, and I also liked its tone, because at its core, it’s a comedy,” he continued, adding: “I believe that laughter is a very beautiful way to touch on these deep topics. And since, in reality, I don’t have an answer for how to create a perfect relationship, the best thing is to laugh a little at what we do.”