Synopsis
Ch’ul be delves into the Tzotzil sacred path, exploring ancient collective commitments that sustain the cycle of life in the community. In San Andrés Larráinzar, everyone is responsible for the collective well-being, but few are chosen to follow the path of serving the gods. Ch’ul be is the path of Martha and Diego, and of Román and his son Tino. It is a journey from the everyday to the divine, from the individual to the collective, to ensure that knowledge is not lost and the cycle is not broken.
A word from Tënk
This film offers a rare emic immersion into the ritual practices of a community in Chiapas, revealing from within the symbolic, social, and political systems that shape it. No longer are we seeing through external eyes; instead, voices from within the culture itself guide the narrative, embodying gestures and knowledge.
Religious rites become powerful revelations of worldviews, of connections to life, death, the sacred, time, and the body. They make visible the forms of cohesion, hierarchies, commitments, and relationships to the living and to ancestors. As viewers, we may not grasp everything, but we feel deeply. We watch and listen—in silence.
Through these collective scenes, universal questions also emerge: What are we leaving to our children? How do tradition and modernity intertwine? The film reveals tensions, transformations, and also forms of cultural resistance.
I was reminded of villages like Chamula, where I once didn’t dare to cross the threshold of the churches—communities I observed only from a distance. This film gives me access to them, with respect and sensitivity. Thank you, Humberto Gómez Pérez.
Sylvie Lapointe
Filmmaker
