The first film from Guatemala to premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, ‘Los Fantasmas’ is also the debut feature film from Sebastian Lojo, a previous recipient of the Panalux award and director of a number of acclaimed shorts shot across the world. In ‘Los Fantasmas’, Lojo explores the contradictions of characters lost like ghosts within a violent urban context.

Koki is a young, attractive and charismatic young man who makes a living in Guatemala City as a thief by proxy. Across sun-drenched afternoons, he befriends tourists who are suddenly, cyclically mugged. Under cover of night, he seduces men in bars and clubs, leading them to a hotel room where they are robbed. 

The latter arrangement is in conjunction with Carlos, a middle aged, senior member of staff at the hotel. Away from the dated atmosphere of his workplace, Carlos indulges in another form of rehearsed violence, moonlighting as an amateur wrestler, briefly liberated under a thick shade of make-up.

In the company of his concerned friend, Sofia, Koki justifies his actions as the will to survive. However, when the tables are turned and Koki himself is victimized, he finds himself pushed even further into society’s margins, forced to witness the violent effects of his actions from an almost disembodied perspective.

This stylish, patient and intriguing film pays particular attention to the vulnerability of difficult characters, interspersing acts of deceit and violence with the banal, repetitive realities of working class life in Guatemala. Beneath the threat of turbulence and violence, Lojo’s calm lens captures subtlety and humanity amid questionable instincts and stinging consequences.