Gunpowder Heart

Content warning: the plot of Gunpowder Heart and the content of this review focuses on two women dealing with sexual assault. Please proceed with caution.

Gunpowder Heart takes place in Guatemala. The two leads are Maria and Claudia. I am unsure if they are girlfriends or “girlfriends” when the movie begins. Claudia and Maria have a normal life and normal sized dreams. They like music and partying and sometimes talk about moving to Europe or America which they imagine is more free. However, on a night out, two men assault Claudia and Maria. The majority of the film deals with the aftermath of this event. Normal life continues, uncaring and unaware of their trauma. Maria desires revenge. She plans to get it with a gun owned by Claudia’s grandfather.

I saw a film festival screening of Gunpowder Heart which came with a director’s statement. Director Camila Urrutia outlines her drive for making this movie was out of a place of anger and desperation to create art around the unaddressed issue of sexual violence on Guatemala. Even without that director’s statement, Urrutia’s motivation looms large in this film. This is overtly art that came from a place of anger. The film exists to humanize survivors of sexual assault. More than that, it rails against the aspects of culture that let these fictional women and their real life counterparts down in the lead up and aftermath of this traumatic event.

Claudia and Maria are definitely stand-ins more than unique characters. It is not just likely that real women have their shared experience, it is certain. Claudia and Maria’s lives and wants are essentially unexceptional. They want to drink beer and have a life where they feel safe. The act of violence against them puts all of this on pause. Despite the fact that real life continues, uncaring and that the women themselves sometimes try and act as if nothing has changed, it has. The film devastatingly plays this against the aftermath of their attackers. For Claudia and Maria, this was a life changing trauma. For their attackers, it was casual, common and unremarkable.

The actual scene of the assault is brief and not particularly graphic, thank god. Gunpowder Heart deals with the aftermath. One of the many things the film does well is depict the mundane nature of Claudia and Maria’s lives even following such an event. It can’t all be dramatic breakdowns and shooting people. They still have to go to work, clean a gun after it jams, and learn gun usage from you tube. The worst piece of this mundane nature is when Claudia goes to report their assault. She waits for an untold amount of time while the cops read a newspaper and make excuses for why they can’t take her statement. It isn’t just that life continues on after a traumatic event. For Claudia and Maria, life and society simply don’t care.

I’m unsure of what Maria and Claudia’s relationship is at the start of the movie. At least one of them is openly queer. But I’m not sure if they’re dating before the assault. During the assault, their attackers jeer and demand them to kiss each other. Another horrific part of that scene; turning one’s sexuality into an act of violence against them. Afterwards, the women do seek affection with each other. They kiss often and have sex once. Though even here, Claudia mentions to her grandfather that Maria may only love her some day. It is likely that this is a new relationship for both of them, one that was unfortunately marred by their shared traumatic event.

The combination of this uncaring world and the violence that the women experienced made me feel an extraordinary sense of both rage and hopelessness. Urrutia takes these emotions and divides them amongst the two. Maria’s reaction is immediate rage and desire for revenge. For Claudia, especially following her visit to the cops, she feels like nothing can be done. Perhaps because of this, Claudia’s purpose becomes to help Maria. Claudia herself is at best ambivalent towards revenge. But at least she can do something. At least she can help someone she cares about, even if she doesn’t fully agree with Maria’s methods.

Gunpowder Heart is a difficult film to review because of the topic it covered and how well it covered it. My style of reviewing doesn’t exactly lend itself well to covering essentially a manifesto and demand for empathy for sexual assault victims. I’m just going to say that what this movie absolutely accomplished what it set out to do. Gunpowder Heart is a heavy, depressing sit. As it should be. Camila Urrutia successfully channelled her rage, sadness and desire for change into her art. Gunpowder Heart made me want to do something about this problem. This feeling was immediately followed by a sense of hopelessness. Because what can any individual do in face of such a large problem? In an effort to at least do something, here’s a link to a charity focusing on sexual assault in Guatemala.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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