The film Nuestras Madres (Our Mothers) was virtually released in the United States on May 1 and is now being released worldwide on various dates.
Filmmaker César Díaz says: “Our Mothers focuses on the story of a young researcher trying to identify victims buried in mass graves during the civil war, the conflict that bled the country between 1960 and 1996, leaving thousands of people dead and missing.”
Screen Daily explains: “This is an appealingly dignified, humane story of the repercussions of the little-known civil war in Guatemala as borne by the country’s women. Cesar Diaz’s debut feature is both compact and ambitious, distilling its larger themes into the core story of one young man and his secretive mother.”
In an acceptance speech last year at the Cannes Film Festival, Diaz stated: “I’d like to dedicate this prize to the 250,000 victims of Guatemala’s genocide and the women still standing and who teach us a great lesson of life.”
That acceptance speech can be seen here.
On March 11, just as the pandemic hit, the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival interviewed Pamela Guinea, the executive producer of the film.
She commented: “People in Guatemala are waiting for the film with great eagerness. It is a very controversial subject that generates a lot of debate [and] I don’t know how they will receive it when they see it.”
She added: “We plan to release the film this month at the International Film Festival of Memory Truth Justice (Opening Film), but we will not have a commercial run in theaters yet. We are going to wait, as it is not easy to premiere in commercial cinemas.”
The film had virtual screenings in cities across the United States in mid-May. A trailer for the film with English subtitles can be seen here.