Justice for my Sister

Short Synopsis

A documentary film that examines the rise of violence against women in Guatemala through one woman's story as she defies all odds by pushing a machista system to demand answers for her sister’s brutal murder. 

Description/Treatment

A 60-minute documentary currently in post-production, Justice for my Sister examines the rising rate of killings of women in Guatemala through one woman’s story as she navigates a corrupt and virtually impenetrable justice system to demand answers for her sister’s death. This David versus Goliath story is shot in a gritty verite style with an on-the-ground perspective, and follows Rebeca during her two-year battle to make it to the courts. Directed by first-time filmmaker Kimberly Bautista, we are lucky to have Academy Award-nominated Renee Tajima-Peña on the advisory board, among other seasoned filmmakers. This important social issue film will be accompanied by an interactive website and a wide-reaching outreach and engagement campaign to promote dialogue and move audiences to action.

Adela Chacón Tax left home one day for work at the age of 27 and never came back. She was beaten to death by an ex-boyfriend. Her story is hauntingly familiar in Guatemala, where over 4000 women have been murdered since 2001. Adela’s sister Rebeca, 33, recalls the day she went missing. She went running through the streets of their hometown Escuintla, a humid, rural, coastal town in the south of Guatemala. Hours later, she was notified by the doctors from the morgue that Adela had appeared – battered and dead in a ditch by the side of the road some few yards from her house. She had been left so brutalized, that no one in her family recognized her.

Since the late Adela’s death, Rebeca has taken in her three children and pounds the pavement for months on end to move her sister’s case through the insufficient judicial system, all while surviving on her family’s humble tortilla business.

Rebeca is certain that the man responsible for her sister’s death is Ricardo, who she claims used to threaten Adela by phone and stalk her. Edelmira, Adela’s friend, says that Ricardo was actually Adela’s ex-boyfriend, who used to beat her. Luckily, they’re able to identify and catch Ricardo. He is awaiting trial in jail.  Rebeca struggles to maintain emotional stability for her family in the midst of Ricardo’s threats from behind bars and intensifying fear on confronting the accused in court as the one-year anniversary of Adela’s death draws near.

Rebeca has to go to the police station to get the police report. Since the trial is coming up quickly, she wants to make sure all the files are in order. Rebeca emerges from the house totally transformed in black heels and a black cocktail dress. If she doesn’t dress up to go to the police, they would not give her the time of day.

In the police station, the young nervous official looks for the file of Adela’s death, only to find that it’s missing. Rebeca leaves the station infuriated as she is confronted with the police’s negligence.

Next, Rebeca directs herself to the Public Prosecutor’s office. At least there they should have the files ready. There she meets an empty office and an exaggerated stack of unattended files, along with another survivor who lost her sister recently to murder. Rebeca tells the other survivor that she can’t rely on the Public Prosecutor and that she has to move the case herself, because ultimately the perpetrator has to pay for his crime. The young woman is moved to tears. She has already had a taste of what she is up against and she truly desires justice for her sister’s case, which feels so far away.

Just a couple days before they head to the courtroom, they receive an unexpected message from their lawyer: the case is suspended until an unforeseen dates because the judge was accused of killing his own wife.

One year after the initial trial was supposed to take place, Rebeca finally takes the killer Ricardo head-on in court. His female defense lawyers have the audacity to demean and invalidate the family’s suffering and emotional turmoil. They claim that since two years have past since Adela’s death, the family should have moved passed it already, as if that justifies letting a guilty man walk. After months of drawn-out testimonies and delayed responses, a verdict is finally reached: Ricardo is declared guilty... of manslaughter; not premeditated murder. He is let off with a minimal sentence while Rebeca and her family fear his release. As Rebeca says, referring to the judge that would doze off on the podium during the hearings, “Justice is asleep in Guatemala.”

Things intensify when Adela's 12-year-old daughter is targeted in a drive-by shooting. She escapes unscathed, but emotionally shaken and she consequently suffers health issues related to stress and depression. Rebeca resolves that her struggle is not over and she must appeal Ricardo's minimal sentence. Concurrently, Ricardo also decides to appeal the verdict – in his favor. Rebeca is in a seemingly unending battle to put her sister's case to rest.

In a time of desperation to hear when the final appeal date will be, Rebeca gains steam to make change in her community. She becomes a community leader and heads a toy drive for her neighbors and children. Rebeca says that her sister’s death and her subsequent fight for justice have transformed her involvement in the community and the way that she sees herself. It’s also transformed the way other people in her community see her. A boisterous town gossip and neighbor confides in Rebeca that she was raped three years ago. She had buried her story deep down and never spoken about it, even though it resulted in the loss of her job and a deeply engrained fear. After three years, the woman finally opens up to Rebeca and confides in her. Her story illustrates the far-reaching existence of violence against women in Guatemala, the lack of response by the state, and the deep-rooted fear that crimes like this produce to silence women.

Rebeca, while struggling to maintain momentum in her own case, has become a safe-haven in her neighborhood for other women who are in an emotional struggle to regain strength in the aftermath of abuse. Hers is an inspirational story of one woman whose exceptional courage and determination fed her drive to respond to the brutal murder of her sister with a relentless fight for justice that becomes more far-reaching than her own case.