While there’s no shortage of films about the violence and heartache that cartels bring to their respective homelands, writer-director Tatiana Huezo’s adaptation of Jennifer Clement’s novel “Prayers for the Stolen” (“Noche de Fuego”) takes on a different perspective, capturing the point of view of a young girl and her friends.
Instead of focusing on the terrors of living in a cartel-torn region, the film tells a story of strength, heartbreak and jaw-dropping beauty.
The film opens with a bit of a shock: Eight-year-old Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) is digging an Ana-sized hole in the ground that her mom Rita (Mayra Batalla) has made as a hiding space for her daughter. It’s not a hide and seek game. The cartels in the region are known to have taken girls from their homes. Mothers have taught their daughters to be alert and to hide from large Black SUVs in a town that is primarily made up of women who tend to children. The girls never know exactly why they have to be afraid; all they know is, whatever it is, it’s bad.
Despite that knowledge, Ana and her closest friends Paula (Camila Gaal) and Maria (Blanca Itzel Pérez) act like normal little girls. They laugh and play games even though they are in an empty house where Juana lived before they were taken. When the time comes for the girls to cut their long, beautiful hairs so they look like little boys, it is a moment that will be cherished by all. This is just one of the tools the mothers use to deter men from kidnapping their girls — except for Maria, who was born with a cleft palate, which her family mistakenly believes will keep her safe.
As they grow up, the girls become teenagers. Ana, Paula, and Maria (now played by Marya Membreño, Alejandra Camacho, and Giselle Barrera Sánchez, respectively) start to experience those first moments of womanhood — their periods, crushing on boys, and wondering what their lives will look like. They must be aware that each day they grow older is another. Each new day is a reminder of what it is to be a woman living in a society where women are kidnapped and killed, with no way to stop it.
Huezo is a writer and director who has a gift for telling stories that are heartbreaking about people going through trauma and turmoil. In “Tempestad,”She takes two women through injustice to find love and humanity and frames them. In “Prayers,” such difficult moments as Ana being taken to get her hair cut are swiftly contrasted with moments where the girls are shown simply being children — running around the gorgeous landscape they call home, catching scorpions, and playing tag with the kids in the neighborhood. It’s a reminder that, despite all the terror that surrounds them, there is still much love and beauty among the people who live there.
Huezo and Dariela Ludlow, the cinematographer, ground the story. They combine fantastical visuals and the harsh realities of the women and girls living in these areas. Stories like these often focus too much on violence. But Huezo instead captures the small moments of joy, childlike innocence, and wonder. This allows those qualities to be a strength.
This may be one tiny change of perspective, but the film and the characters’ journey offer the many real women and girls who have been lost to femicide some dignity and humanity. This may be the real beauty of “Prayers for the Stolen.”
“Prayers for the Stolen”Available in US cinemas and on Netflix Nov. 17.