Rita, a film based on the Hogar Seguro fire, to premiere at Montreal film festival, July 25

Published by Brent Patterson on July 18, 2024July 18, 2024

The film “Rita” will be shown at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal on July 25 starting at 6:50 pm (18:50).

The screening will be hosted by Jayro Bustamante, a Guatemalan film director and screenwriter.

On the film festival website, Kat Ellinger writes: “[The] story [is] based on a harrowing real-life event, where 41 young women horrifically burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage in 2017, in the midst of a protest about inhumane conditions.”

The Guardian reports: “[Cynthia Phaola Morales]  was one of only 15 survivors of the blaze at the Virgen de la Asunción (HSVA), in San José Pinula, just outside Guatemala City, which broke out on the morning of 8 March 2017. She and 55 other girls had been locked in a tiny room with no food or access to a toilet, as punishment for an attempted escape from the shelter. The fire started when one of the girls set a mattress alight in protest at their treatment. Despite the girls’ pleas for help the doors of the room remained locked for nine minutes.”

PBI-Guatemala accompanied lawyer Edgar Pérez

The Guardian article about this new film also highlights: “In January, the trial of eight government officials and police officers charged in connection with the fire finally got under way. They are charged with the abuse of minors, breach of duty and manslaughter. Edgar Pérez, a lawyer at Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos en Guatemala (the Guatemalan Human Rights Law Firm), which represents 14 of the girls’ families, says the charges do not correspond to the severity of what happened in 2017.”

It further notes: “The trial is expected to last for months, as only one hearing is held each week. Pérez says that from the testimonies given at the trial so far, ‘if the staff at the home had acted more promptly, many lives would have been saved’. ‘In fact, [the fire] could have been avoided altogether if there had been trained personnel, people with conscience [working there] and real policies for the care of children and adolescents in the country.’”

The Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project accompanies Edgar Pérez and the Human Rights Law Firm (BDH).

PBI-Canada met with Pérez at his office in Guatemala City in May 2023.

Photo: PBI-Guatemala accompanies BDH at hearing related to the Hogar Seguro fire.

PBI-Guatemala accompanies lawyer Edgar Pérez at trial of state officials and police in the deaths of young women at shelter fire (January 9, 2023)