Reviews

I have just seen this film at the Melbourne Women in Film Festival 2019, with the director Angie Black in attendance for a Q&A. Her unique style of direction involved very deep collaboration with the actors in developing characters and storylines as filming progressed. On the surface it is about grief and loss, following the death of one character and the ripples affecting her husband, her daughter, her lover and other friends. The Provocations are the fantastical, whimsical, Felliniesque overlay, which provoke many giggles if not belly laughs. It is rare to see any hat which represents female genitalia in such a delightful and complete manner. Don't want to say any more, it should be seen fresh without too many pre-conceptions. The minority of characters are heterosexual, but that just happens to be part of the richness of the palette here rather than plot relevant.

This is a beautifully filmed and sensitively told story of the clash of Mayan culture, economic exploitation and the End of Days in the Mayan Calendar, filmed by Europeans in a sensitive and non-intrusive manner. Six Mayan individuals tell their stories about their culture, and their fears for the survival of that culture under the brutal regimes that push them aside with no concern for their welfare or their future. One woman talks about the collapse of the local economy when Monsanto starts selling GM corn at a lower price than the local corn, so that poor locals buy the cheaper corn, destroying income for the farmers, who leave, as they cannot survive economically any more...and the immigration or refugee road is very dangerous. culture and religion are weaved in and out of the stories, and its a fulfuliing view - not of outsiders looking down,- but insiders explaining and wondering if all first world countries, like Canada, are ' assassinos' just like the USA.