A Masterful Dark Fairytale, ‘Rita’ Exposes Unthinkable Real-Life Horrors [Fantasia 2024 Review]
At the Fantasia Fest world premiere of Jayro Bustamante’s latest spectacle, Rita, the Guatemalan director (La Llorona ) introduced his new film with some enlightening context. To craft a dark fantasy honoring the young women of Guatemala, Bustamante searched every province of his country to cast the project. The visionary auditioned countless girls and young women, none of whom were trained actors, yet most still appeared on screen in various roles.
Bustamante produced this masterful fairytale to honor the real victims of a devastating fire in a Guatemalan orphanage who still await justice against the cruel authorities responsible for their unimaginable deaths. By dragging a comb through his country for real women, Bustamante captures the voice of a generation of lost girls imprisoned by an abusive system yet whose unshakable spirits could never be tamed or broken. And by doing so has produced a necessary and outstanding work of dark fantasy.
The blaze that took the lives of 41 young girls at the Hogar Virgen de la Asunción orphanage south of Guatemala City serves as a direct inspiration for Rita. After inhumane overcrowding, physical abuse, unsanitary living conditions, and inedible food, 56 girls rebelled against the cruelty of their orphanage—an infamous facility dubbed The City of Children—which once held as many as 600 youth. The group of girls was subsequently locked in a small classroom without water, food, or restroom facilities. Desperate to escape, some girls set fire to a mattress in an attempt to have the doors unlocked. But authorities never let them out, and nearly all of these young women died unimaginable deaths in the flames of de la Asunción.
These horrific events and very real people act as an outline for this film, one that smartly utilizes fantasy and magical realism to cocoon the horrors of its story. The outcome is a dazzling narrative evocative of Guillermo del Toro’s earlier works. When Rita first arrives at the orphanage to evade the monstrous abuses she faced at home, she mentally transforms her new prison-like environment into a fairytale setting where girls are assorted into different encampments of magical creatures.
Rita is tossed to the pen of Angels, a house of rough-edged girls who wear dirty white linens and beautiful handmade wings. Other groups at the orphanage include bunnies, princesses, fairies, and punk-rock K9s. The costuming is purposefully high school grade to showcase girls crafting their own realities, slipping between real and imaginary at will.
Giuliana Santa Cruz takes on the mantel of heroine Rita with believable ease and deep nuance. With Bustamante’s guidance, Cruz performs the nearly impossible task of playing a protagonist whose audience needs to share her fish-out-of-water POV. She has to bear the perspective of everyone, which historically has made for some uninteresting lead roles. Rita comes across as both distinct and universal, which is a great accomplishment by Cruz and Bustamante. Her personification of an entire generation also reads like the fascinating character study of one resilient girl capable of anything.
The Angels who form Rita’s backing ensemble are an effective Greek chorus, angry and ethereal birds of prey who are fascinating to watch, even though it’s clear they’re not professional performers. Alejandra Vásquez stands out as the beloved Bebé, a puckish Angel who holds a wisdom beyond most of her peers. Vásquez is a loveable trap, by which I mean she’s a character that’s so easy to grow fond of that putting her in peril is an easy emotional tactic to rile up an audience. It works here.
Like the angel costumes assembled by the prisoners of the orphanage themselves, Rita itself has a handmade quality. Rough to the touch, I’m sure the artists involved were purposeful with the dynamic look and feel of the project. However, its lack of polish and resources can sometimes be a bit distracting at inopportune moments of drama or intrigue. A frightening gang of phantom girls who appear tangled in webs of sparkling Christmas lights could have easily been my favorite element. Still, an attempt at CGI above its pay grade is partially responsible for anchoring this horror element to earth when it could’ve been so much more. It’s impossible to begrudge filmmakers for limited resources, but sometimes, it can be wise to work within your limits.
Ultimately, Rita is a lush and necessary spectacle from a visionary filmmaker. It reveals the cruel injustices of the Hogar Virgen de la Asunción orphanage and tells the story of a generation of young women mistreated by a system that must be held accountable for acts of inhumane cruelty. Any budgetary limitations can be forgiven by a narrative that appears purposefully handcrafted by its chorus of young women whose stories demand to be told.
Rita will be available to stream on Shudder starting November 22nd, 2024.
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Rita
Summary
Bustamante has produced a necessary and outstanding work of dark fantasy that gives voice to a generation of girls with unshakable spirits imprisoned by an abusive system.
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