‘Prayers for the Stolen’ Review: The Coming of the Age of the Poppies


In “Prayers for the Stolen,” the first narrative feature by Mexican-Salvadoran documentarian Tatiana Huezo, 8-year-old girls cry as their mother cuts their long locks under the pretext of preventing head lice. In reality, the boyish haircuts are meant to hide their true gender from the cartel members terrorizing rural Mexican towns.

Soon the girls will be hardened at the truth that haunts the glittering and verdant highlands surrounding their remote village. These criminals kidnap, sexually assault, and often leave girls in their hands to die.

Based on Jennifer Clement’s 2014 novel of the same name, “Prayers for the Stolen” is a convoluted adult film that delicately depicts the evolution of Ana and her two girlfriends, Paula and Maria. The girls secretly put on makeup behind their mothers, fantasize about their teachers, and finally start their own little flirtation. But violence limits their every whim.

The threat posed by the cartel, which harvests poppies using the cheap labor of the townspeople, undermines any sense of normalcy. Black SUVs can charge from the other side of the valley without warning, forcing the girls into hiding, and helicopters spraying poisonous pesticides to protect the opium-producing crop often invade during gameplay.

A leap in time turns girls into young women. A new series of older actresses step in to play 13-year-old girls, and their masculine hairstyles are not fooling anyone.

The film cascades from idyllic bliss to brutality and produces a narrative that, while unfocused, is nonetheless anchored by the sensitive and hurtful performances of its young cast.

In the end, tragedy comes suddenly, a turn that is not surprising given the unchanging circumstances, but gives a girl the monumental gloom of her destiny to awaken.

Prayers for the stolen
It is rated R. Spanish, with subtitles. Working time: 1 hour 50 minutes. in theaters and on Netflix.



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