As the 2025 Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis kicks off, I marvel once again at artistic director Greg Sorvig's ability to program some of the globe's most truly moving pictures. This includes this film, a feature doc debut from codirectors Doug Anderson and Vickie Curtis. 

Comparsa opens with a mesmerizing Lesli Noemi Canola Pérez alongside her sister Lupe, two sisters who will absolutely captivate throughout Comparsa's seemingly slight yet perfectly paced 78-minute running time. It's a film that won me over in its opening minute and it absolutely never let me go. Set in Ciudad Peronia, Guatemala inside Asociación Peronia Adolescente., it becomes apparent quite quickly that we're in for an emotionally raw, guttural cinematic experience exhausting yet wholly exhilarating. The backdrop of the film, largely set in 2022, is a 2017 fire at the Hogar Seguro, or "safe home," that killed forty-one girls and severely injured fifteen others. Having made allegations that guards had beaten and raped them, these girls were betrayed with beyond tragic results. 

It is five years later, the grief is still palpable as Lesli and Lupe, who had known one of the fire's victims, turn their palpable grief into a seemingly impossible women's street festival that is resisted by the community yet silently embraced by women who've been silenced for too long. 

To call Comparsa a remarkable effort feels inadequate. For a film centered around the theme of femicide, it must be said that Comparsa is, indeed, a life-affirming and truly moving motion picture that somehow never compromises the tragedy of its narrative foundations yet finds its heart and soul in the strength, resilience, and wonder of these amazing women. I found myself in awe of Leslie, one line in particular moving me to tears every single time I think of it. I dare not share it because I want you to have that experience for yourself. 

As these women move toward their festival, the energy in the story ebbs and flows, bends but never breaks. At a mere 22-years-old, Lesli is clearly meant to be a leader yet somehow she leads with love despite so much tragedy. 

Lensing by Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers is simultaneously intimate yet universal, immersive yet aware of and respectful of boundaries. It's remarkable work with images not easily forgotten. While Lesli leads, other women shine including Dalila and her "minute of noise," Vanessa and her relentless pursuit of breaking cycles of submission and violence, and the quiet poignance of Lilian, caught grieving two young women who died within the making of this film. 

Comparsa is a lovely film that manages to find beauty amidst tragedy and a film that refuses to define these women, or exploit these women, by their worst life experiences. It's a beautiful thing indeed. 

There's a vitality throughout Comparsa, a necessary film claiming triumph yet honoring loss and grief and truth. With a first screening at Heartland on Oct. 10th at 3:45pm at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Square, this is a film not to be missed. Comparsa will also have a screening on Sunday, October 12th, at 8pm at the Living Room Theaters in downtown Indy's Bottleworks District. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic