February 7, 2025

FILMHOUNDS Magazine

All things film – In print and online

An Accomplished Drama About Death – Xibalba Monster (Edinburgh International Film Festival)

Xibalba Monster could be a more comprehensive story, but what is here remains fascinating and anchored by a very special lead performance.
Xibalba Monster EIFF Review

Image: © Cine Provincia

Death, as anybody who has attended or seen a Day of the Dead Parade will tell you, is a unique question in Mexico. It is a question that writer and director Manuela Irene tackles with curiosity and richness in their debut feature Xibalba Monster (or Monstruo de Xibalba). Filmed with an alluring quality and featuring a stunning lead performance, Xibalba Monster is a short but considered perspective on one of the biggest questions anybody can ask.

Eight-year-old Rogelio (Rogelio Ojeda Gonzalez) has lost both of his parents and currently lives with his nanny. He begins to wonder what happens after you die, and this leads him to meet an old hermit living in an isolated house. The hermit, according to local legend, is the Xibalba Monster; a being who struck a deal with the lords of the Mayan underworld that allows him to live despite his old age and poor health. 

Whether the old man Rogelio meets really is a monster is never definitively answered. What is clear though is that Rogelio lives in a world full of discreet mysticism and magic. One striking sequence shows the boy in an upside-down world, with horses among other things running by. In these and other equally eerie moments, the looming score puts you on edge and opens you up to the possibility of something extraordinary. It is also nothing of pure fancy, but something based on different beliefs and practices ranging from Christian to Mayan, and it is in fact by looking back as far as the Mayans that Rogelio comes the coldest to answering his question. 

Gonzalez, tasked with bringing this story to life, is a sensation. He carries the innocence of a child while also shouldering a solemn weariness that, rather than dragging him down, seems to keep him focused on his investigation. His increasingly close bond with the hermit is played wonderfully, and yet such is the matter-of-fact presence of death that the culmination of their story isn't even especially sad. And Irene gives a sense of wonder to even the most mundane of frames, the closing shots especially feeling nothing short of magical in their contrast and brightness. 

Irene approaches Xibalba Monster in an incredibly delicate fashion, centring Rogelio's childlike behaviour as to encourage a very naturalised depiction of childhood. They pay particular attention to how Rogelio processes the world around him; what he hears, sees, and touches on his journeys and while walking around. Rogelio is able to pace himself in his discovery of nature's inevitabilities, making Irene's film a coming-of-age story in many senses as well as a fascinating drama. While he goes looking for death, it is never gratuitously presented to him, and even the bloody moments are only as explicit as they need to be. There is a restraint and patience to the story that encourages a deeper level of appreciation for the journey Rogelio has begun.

The main frustration is that Xibalba Monster leaves a lot unsaid despite the fact you know there is more to what is going on. Exactly what happened to Rogelio's parents is unclear, and the hermit is given no backstory aside from the myth attached to him. Even Rogelio, by his own admission, cannot imagine the hermit as a child (and neither can you for that matter). The film possesses a contextual focus on history, ritual and myth, but extends this interest far more to its setting than the characters. Certain individuals, like the nanny, are clearly important to Rogelio but also seem to fade away into the background of his story as the film progresses. 

There could be far more to indulge in with Xibalba Monster, and what is here feels restricted by the very sparse 76-minute running time. But Irene delivers a blissful and intriguing portrait of one young boy's interest in what comes after we are dead and gone. Far from feeling morbid, Xibalba Monster feels surprisingly uplifting thanks to its focus on how tuning into our history, those around us, and ourselves can help find peace with some of life's biggest open questions. 

Xibalba Monster had its world premiere on 18th August 2024 as part of the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival.