Bolivia

Maleficarum (2011) directed by Jac Avila is a good screen play by an independent Bolivian film company. It is good historical fiction loosely based on María Francisca Ana de Castro, a Spanish immigrant to Alta Peru, who was renowned for her beauty and wealth. She was arrested and accused of “judaizing”. After many days of torture she confessed and was burned at the stake in 1726. This event was a major spectacle in Lima, but it raised questions about possible irregular procedures and about the corruption within the Inquisition, this lead to the end of The Holy Office (The Inquisition) in Peru. The director and actors do an admirable recreating the actual realistic suffering in great detail of what the victims of the Spanish Inquisition had to endure. The best was the director’s use of the actors’ facial and body language, it was very cerebral and visual at the same time. This viewer marveled at the simplicity of that movie and how it got its complex message across, the script and the story plot was very well thought out. The dialogue of the accusers and witnesses did well in showing the bias and superstitions of that time.Read More »

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ZONA SUR has met with success in both Latin America and at festivals like Sundance, where it won World Cinema Directing and Screenwriting awards in 2010. Interestingly it was also Bolivia’s official entry for the 2010 Oscars. How has it fared in his own country? He says, “In La Paz the film has caused a sensation. People don’t stop talking about it. It has been like a hot potato thrown into the hands of society. The ending [or lack of a definite ending] bothers some people. But then people have to talk about it.” And such discussions should gladden the hearts of any filmmakers.
-Chale NafusRead More »

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In the Bolivian highlands, an elderly Quechua couple has been living the same daily life for years. During an uncommonly long drought, Virginio and his wife (Sisa) face a dilemma: resist or be defeated by the environment and time itself.Read More »

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variety.com

There’s a symphonic rhythm to the aptly-titled Bolivian film “The Great Movement” (“El Gran Movimiento”). Kiro Russo’s portrait of La Paz is driven more by sensory cues than by any steady sense of narrative. Ostensibly following a trio of miners who arrive at the sprawling, Andean capital city with the hopes of getting jobs, “The Great Movement” emerges instead as a dissection of this highest of Latin American urban jungles.Read More »

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Elder Mamani’s immaturity and recklessness make him a liability as a Huanuni tin mine, where he’s filled his recently deceased father’s job. Elder spirals further out of control until his fellow workers petition to have him removed.Read More »

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This interesting and colorful film has been unseeded for more than five years and deserves an upgrade IMnHO. A Bolivia-Cuba-Argentina coproduction with Ibermedia help and several film institutions, it was the Official submission of Bolivia for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category of the 78th Academy Awards in 2006… not that it matters that much.Read More »

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When Bolivian campesinos discover American doctors sterilizing women without their consent, they seek revenge­­ –– only to be repressed by the military. Filmed in Quechua in a remote Kaata village, it was banned by government censors, until a heated campaign forced them to relent. It went on to win acclaim abroad while provoking demonstrations, a Senate investigation and the expulsion of the Peace Corps at home. The film’s lack of success with indigenous audiences drove Sanjinés turn to collective filmmaking.Read More »

The Bolivian fiction feature Yawar Mallku is one of the most famous examples of Latin American militant cinema. Like most Latin American militant films, this one was made on a modest budget in spite of major obstacles. Bolivia has no significant filmmaking traditions or facilities. Mules had to be used to transport the filmmakers and their equipment to a high and remote Indian community where parts of the film were shot. The Quechua-speaking Indians of this Andean community were initially hostile to the filmmakers until a coca-leaf divination ritual confirmed the filmmakers’ good intentions.Read More »