FILM
Orientation and the Choices Involved
Affl uent Guatemalan leave much behind in coming out
Juan Pablo Olyslager and Mauricio Armas in Jayro Bustamante’s“Temblores,” which opens November 29 at the Quad.
BY GARY M. KRAMER
“Temblores” (“Tremors”)
is an outstanding
Guatemalan
drama by out
gay fi lmmaker Jayro Bustamante.
Pablo (Juan Pablo Olyslager), an
upper class, evangelical, married
father of two leaves his family for
his lover, Francisco (Mauricio Armas).
The ripples of his coming
out create the tremors of the title
as Pablo loses his job and is cut
off from his kids. He also brings
shame on his family. Pablo quickly
learns the harsh lesson that he
cannot have his family and his
lover — society just won’t allow it.
What is more, he undergoes a form
of conversion therapy to change
his ways.
“Temblores” is a quietly powerful
fi lm buoyed by Olyslager’s remarkable,
internal performance.
In a recent Skype interview, the
actor talked about homosexuality,
which he described as “the big
pink elephant in the room called
Guatemala.”
He said, “Many people fi nd it uncomfortable
to talk about it even
though they have relatives who
are gay and know gay people. It’s
a deeply religious and conservative
country, but it’s still a touchy subject
here.”
Olyslager explained how Guatemala
lags behind other countries
when it comes to gay rights and
LGBTQ visibility.
“There is not a law that doesn’t
protect the gay community but
there is not a law that protects it,”
he said. “There was a pro-familia
law that recognized traditional
marriage that right-wing groups
were advocating, but it did not
pass. Homosexuals are not protected.
You could be fi red easily
from a job if someone fi nds out you
are gay.”
Pablo learns this in the fi lm, as
well as that some folks equate his
sexuality with pedophilia — something
that happens in Guatemalan
society because of fear.
Bustamante deliberately shot the
fi lm with what Olyslager described
as “the texture of the 1970s,” to portray
a backward society in modern
times. Still the actor acknowledged
that attitudes about homosexuality
in Guatemala are changing.
“I see a glimmer of hope with
new generations that are being
brought up differently — not by
their parents, but by access to
information,” Olyslager said. “For
some people, it’s a desirable thing
to have a country where you have
diversity. It also depends on one’s
social circle. Artists are more tolerant
than businesspeople or religious
groups.”
Religion is very important in
FILM MOVEMENT
“Temblores,” and Olyslager emphasized
that Bustamante was not
interested in attacking any specifi c
religion.
“It’s more about dogma,” he
said.
Pablo was a religious man because
of his upbringing, but starts
doubting religion after he meets
Francisco. The actor fi lled in the
lovers’ backstory, explaining the
men met long before the fi lm begins.
“Pablo was attracted to Francisco’s
gutsiness and that he’s free,”
Olyslager noted. “Opposites attract.
That’s what Pablo saw in him.”
Several scenes emphasize the
loving relationship between Pablo
and Francisco. A breakfast the two
men share in a market is tender
in part because here the wealthy
Pablo fi nds a safe space dominated
by lower social classes — he feels
liberated because no one knows
who he is.
In the fi lm’s opening moments,
Bustamante sets Pablo in the
claustrophobic hothouse atmosphere
of his family’s opulent
home, contrasting that with the
warmth of a crowded bar where he
greets Francisco. When he moves
out of his home to a modest apartment,
Pablo is much happier.
But as his life changes, Pablo
faces some reckonings. How he
processes what happens to him
allows Olyslager to shine, his expressive
performance conveying
the depths of his character’s despair
as he bravely pursues a life
he can’t have.
“Pablo comes from a wealthy
conservative family and is expected
to meet someone from good social
class, marry, have kids, and
die,” Olyslager explained. “With
Francisco, he has found something
he wanted. He wanted to
experience the gay scene without
being judged in Guatemala. What
Pablo wanted was to be with Francisco
and have a relationship with
his kids and work life. But I think
he is naïve that all that could coexist.
So, he starts crashing into this
wall. In the end, Pablo had to make
a choice.”
That choice has Pablo entering
into a conversion therapy program
that humbles him.
“He’s resigned, and he believes
what the pastor is saying — maybe
they are right and I have to go
through this,” Olyslager said of his
character’s thinking. “Pablo has
faith in conversion therapy and expects
to get something out of it —
either clarity about his sexuality or
a cure. When people are in serious
trouble emotionally, they are willing
to believe anything just to feel
better. So, Pablo could believe that
the therapy was going to work.”
The actor, however, sees conversion
therapy — which he fi rst
learned about making “Temblores”
— as an insidious practice.
“The founders of these groups
often go back to who they are; they
fail, themselves,” he noted. “There
are many programs, and they do
their work in a silent manner.”
Bustamante’s fi lm shows the
consequences of religious righteousness.
If “Temblores” offers
hope for people like Pablo, it also
shows that there remains a price
to be paid in the Guatemala of today.
TEMBLORES | Directed by Jayro
Bustamante | In Spanish, with
English subtitlers | Film Movement
| Opens Nov. 29 | Quad Cinema,
34 W. 13th St. | quadcinema.com
November 28 - December 4 28 , 2019 | GayCityNews.com
/quadcinema.com
/GayCityNews.com
