To escape an arranged marriage, a woman flees into the depths of the Mayan jungle, where untamed nature merges the human and the supernatural. This is the main plot for the Mexican mystery thriller Tragic Jungle (2020).
The movie, with the original title Selva Trágica in the Spanish language, is set in 1920, on the border between Mexico and Belize. Deep in the Mayan jungle, a lawless territory where myths abound, a group of Mexican gum workers cross paths with Agnes, a mysterious young Belizean woman. Her presence incites tension among the men, arousing their fantasies and desires. Filled with new vigor, they face their destiny, without knowing that they have woken up Xtabay, a legendary being that lurks in the heart of the jungle.
This Mexico, France, and Colombia production is the new movie of Yulene Olaizola, a filmmaker that despite her young age she collected a big amount of awards with her debut feature film Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies (2008) and has also directed the dramas Artificial Paradises (2011), Fogo (2012), and Epitafio (2015). She has been also the author of the screenplay together with her frequent collaborator Rubén Imaz.
Tragic Jungle (2020) is starred by Indira Rubie Andrewin, Gilberto Barraza, Mariano Tun Xool, Eligio Meléndez, Gabino Rodríguez, Shantai Obispo, Cornelius McLaren, Gildon Roland, and Dale Carley.
The movie was part of several film festivals along 2020 including the Mar del Plata Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film in the Latin American Competition, San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Horizons Award, and Venice Film Festival, where it won the Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award for Best Film in a Foreign Language and it was nominated for the Venice Horizons Award for Best Film.
Netflix has the international distribution rights for Tragic Jungle (2020) and has scheduled it for a release on June 9, 2021. Here you can watch its trailer.
