Selva trágica: a magnet for adventure tourism

It is significant that the film Selva trágica, directed by Mexican Yulene Olaizola and winner of the 2020 Venice Film Festival, is one of the most watched films on the Netflix platform, where the public can get a glimpse of the history and landscape of the south.

Although the title is not very original since in 1937, Yucatecan writer Luis Rosado Vega published the “Poema de la selva trágica” (Poem of the tragic jungle) and the rhythm of the film is extremely slow, the Quintana Roo landscape and the Río Hondo, with all its splendors, seduce the audience.

The story of the film is set in 1920, on the border between Mexico and Belize, where a young Belizean girl crosses the Río Hondo, fleeing from an arranged marriage to an old Englishman, whom she rejects, and then encounters and coexists with Mexican chileros.

Agnes’ presence awakens tensions and desires among these rude beings, some of indigenous origin, while she brings out her true self: the Xtabay, a Mayan witch who seduces men and drags them into tragedies that ultimately end in death.

Some of the participants in the film have not been badly received by critics, and we are talking about non-professional actors, whose interventions are full of authenticity and harmonize with the costumbrist context, despite the magic that prevails in the work.

Filmed not so far from Chetumal, the chicle economy and the riverside life in that stream that comes from the mountains of Guatemala emerge before the eyes of the world, amidst the sounds of insects and machete blows against a jungle that is sometimes impenetrable.

Perhaps the film will generate a growth in adventure tourism on the south of Quintana Roo, as it is still possible to find in that jungle, just as in the film, chicle exploitation and crocodiles, jaguars, saraguato monkeys and colorful butterflies.

Translated by Miguel Sánchez