María, a 17-year-old Mayan girl, lives and works with her family in a coffee plantation on the Guatemalan plateau. Her days go by uneventfully until her parents arrange her marriage to the estate foreman. But María, like teenagers everywhere, has a rebellious heart and ends up falling in love with another. Inspired by a real Kaqchikel woman, and drawing on the director’s childhood connections to this particular Mayan community, his personal passion shines through when he explains that “Ixcanul” doesn’t just mean “volcano,” but “the internal force of the mountain which boils looking for eruption.” This sensitive and moving film is an impressive debut from Bustamente, with incredible performances from his mainly non-professional cast.