Fernando Martínez
A retired academic teacher tries to find the love of his youth after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
María, a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya, lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano. She is set to be married to the farm's foreman. But María longs to discover the world on the other side of the mountain, a place she cannot even imagine. And so she seduces a coffee-harvester who wants to escape to the USA. When this man leaves her behind, María discovers her own world and culture anew.
Ignacio is shooting a documentary on the people who disappeared in 1982 during the armed conflict in an indigenous Guatemalan village. Amongst the families are Delfina and her son Juan. Delfina still hopes to find her husband, but Juan knows who was responsible for the disappearance of his father: someone who still lives in the same village.
In Guatemala, violence is contagious. The neighbors of Villas de La Esperanza, in fear of an eventual invasion of those infected by violence, arm themselves and patrol nights, risking their lives for the safety of their families. But battling violence with violence only spreads the contagion, and the neighbors will realise that the greatest danger is not what lurks outside their secure gated community. The real danger lies within. In Guatemala violence is contagious, and we are all infected.
