Tragic Jungle

Yulene Olaizola’s mystic, minimalist tale of colonialism, greed, and desire takes place in the 1920s, deep in the Mayan jungles between Mexico and what was then British Honduras (now Belize). A young Belizean woman, running from a rich British landowner, becomes the captive of a group of Indigenous laborers, who view her with curiosity, fear, and lust. Is she simply a woman on the run or the beautiful Mayan demon and man-killer Xtabay? Part dream-soaked, crepuscular horror tale, Herzog-ian epic of man vs. nature, and tactile immersion into the environment, Tragic Jungle “engages with indigenous legends and colonial history across a story where misogyny is turned against the patriarchy” (Slant Magazine).