The film “Saria” earned an Academy Award nomination in category of Short Film – Live Action for exposing the horrific conditions at a Guatemalan orphanage where a fire claimed 41 girls’ lives.
Now Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan) wants an investigation, and calling on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to insist that Guatemala does a thorough investigation and punish those responsible.
“We need to know where the [surviving children] are now and what has been done to ensure their needs are meet,” Espaillat wrote Pompeo last week. “It goes without saying that many of the surviving children experienced untold trauma from the fire. Their safety and mental health should be of the highest priority.”
Bryan Buckley’s docu-drama “Saria” followed two sisters trying to escape the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home for at-risk youth in San José Pinula, Guatemala. It was the site of decades of sexual and psychological abuse, according to the New York Times, which scrutinized the home after a fire killed 41 girls there.
“Those who prey on the young and the vulnerable must not be allowed to walk freely,” Saria’s director Bryan Buckley said in a statement. “The Guatemalan officials who are accountable for the deaths of the 41 orphaned girls must pay for their unthinkable crimes.”
