Special screening of the Sheffield DocFest International First Feature Competition Winner: Comparsa
From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion – unleashing joy, art, and radical truth in a fight for survival.
In 2017, 41 young girls from a Guatemalan state-run children's home were killed in a fire when their police guards refused to release them from a locked schoolroom. The event is emblematic of the wider epidemic of gender-based violence in Guatemala, and the spark that drives sisters Lesli and Lupe to action. Told from the perspective of young women who have survived and whose lives have been shaped by violence, the film documents efforts to rally the community to collective protest through art and performance, culminating in a vivid, raucous festival through the streets of Ciudad Peronia. Conveyed through a series of sensitive portraits of girlhood and creativity, Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson’s film is an powerful ode to the plight, power and resilience of girls.
Content Guidance: Film contains discussions about drug abuse, domestic abuse, sexual violence and threat.
