Ik’pulan Vaichil (Dark dream)

Ik'pulan vaichil (dark dream in Tzotzil)

Direction, production, photography, editing and post-production: Pau Pascual i Galbis, Production Assistant: Gelitzly Pacheco Montero, Music: Nikka (Electric Force), Sound: José Antonio Flores, Makeup: Eloisa Gómez, Costumes: Mariccona (Mayelhi Villatoro), Actresses: Sandra Gómez, Ingrid Heinz, Génesis Pascacio, Olga Mathey, Adriana Saldaña, Julieta Mayor and Elisabeth Pang. Acknowledgments: Hana Chaki, Ana Karen Morgana, Ezechiel Hascoet, Bryan Sánchez, Betty Bustillo, Ana Ferral, and Yesenia González. Production: SEP-Promep, Federal Government of the United Mexican States. Collaboration: Faculty of Visual Arts-UNICACH (Chiapas), Mexico, 2014. This work was also part of a research project.

Inspired by the 'Ik'al—myths originating from the Tzotzil Mayan ethnic group of Chiapas (Mexico)—which are defined as dark, anthropomorphic specters with black bird-like features that attack people in nightmares and also kidnap women. These black beings would later become, with the arrival of Catholicism, perverse and evil devils called pukuj. According to anthropologist Calixta G. Holmes, when an individual from a Tzotzil village dreams or has a nightmare, the wayjel - animal soul - leaves his body to wander, but when his other soul, chu'lel - the eternal one - is not present, he is sometimes attacked by a dark specter 'ik'al or by its negative effects such as jealousy, envy or hate, causing, depending on the case, anxiety, depression, illness and even death to the victim.