Rita

Rita is one of those films that is inspired by the true events. In this case of 43 girls burned to death in a shelter in Guatemala. However, the difference here is that the 13-year-old narrator Rita (Giuliana Santa Cruz) states at the beginning she has chosen to relay the events as she saw them, not necessarily how they played out.

With that she taps into fairy tales and conjures up fantastic creatures as she is being taken into care having escaped her abusive father. The care home however is to her a fortress, with evil guards and the children separated into clans.
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She is with the ‘Angels’ and to fit in has to wear wings. Others are bizarrely names Rabbitkins, Fairies, another known as the dead. All are at the mercy of brutal guards that have the appearance of paramilitaries in severe battleship-grey uniforms.

The conditions and treatment are horrendous that cause riots and a dirty protest. All put down with force or extreme cruelty akin to torture. The girls are also photographed for the purpose of trafficking. Eventually they plan a mass escape with the idea of telling their story about the conditions in a place that is supposed to care and protect them.

Written and directed by Jayro Bustamante, Rita is a horrific story to mental and physical abuse told by an inmate. Rita’s recounts of her fantastic and surreal visions are most likely mental defences against the cruelty of the institution. For example the social worker has the appearance of a crone long white hair, bent spine and cane.

Depressingly predicable Rita’s story it not unique, each of the girls has a similar story of abuse, incest, and/or rape. In Rita’s case she is now worried for her six-year-old sister with her father. There are understanding adults but in the main there is disdain and contempt for the girls. Treated as little more than human detritus this is misogyny in the extreme.

However, the girls establish that they are not fodder for the establishment’s whims and exploitation. The clan system lets the girls be who they want and the costumes a sense of identity and resistance.

Nevertheless, the only time that the viewer is given any respite from the wretched workings of the institution is when the girls escape. Running free with a sense of purpose and hope, the forest full of powdered colours their sense of relief palpable.

And that is a counterpoint to the squalor of the institution in that in many ways this is a beautiful film. The aforementioned sequence and the opening of the film when Rita arrives at the home. Even the indoor sequences are strikingly composed to expose the poison in the system.

Rita will be on Shudder from 22 November 2024.