LOS AFINCAOS Director: Leónidas Barletta Writers: Enzo Aloisi, Bernardo González Arrili, Leónidas Barletta Cinematography: Mario Pagés Music: Jacobo Ficher 1941. 83 minutes. Black & white. Setting: northern region of Argentina Languages: Spanish Availability: none	Two brothers in a remote Indian town are in love with the same girl, a new teacher who has been assigned to the town. The older brother is a brute and attempts to rape the girl, causing enmity with the younger brother. This was the only film made by the famous Teatro del Pueblo. The acting is stagy and the cinematography often crude, but the story is compelling. Based on the 1940 play Los afincaos: drama barbaro by Enzo Aloisi (an Italian immigrant) and Bernardo González Arrilli. Sinopsis en español: Los Afincaos fue la primera y única película producida por la memorable compañía Teatro del Pueblo. Filmada íntegramente en el Norte, la historia es la de dos hermanos indígenas, que desean a la misma mujer, una joven maestra de escuela. El mayor de los hermanos se enamora pero al ser rechazado, rapta y viola a la infortunada muchacha. Cuando el hermano menor se entera de lo hecho por su hermano, tomará la más terrible de las decisiones. Esta película nos da una idea muy aproximada de la situación del Teatro de contenido social en la Argentina de aquellos tiempos. Si bien la puesta es sumamente teatral, lo que la hace lenta en su desarrollo, la caracterización y composición de los personajes es única. Todos sus intérpretes son los participantes originales del Teatro del Pueblo. La crítica favorable no impidió que la censura obligara a anteponer placas que aclaraban que la acción no transcurría en su país. "Avanzar sin prisa y sin pausa, como la estrella" fue el lema del Teatro del Pueblo, había sido tomado del gran poeta alemán Goethe, fue este grupo el que dió inició al teatro independiente.
	LA DEUDA INTERNA (The Inner Debt) [a.k.a. Veronico Cruz] Director: Miguel Pereira Writers: Eduardo Leiva Muller, Miguel Pereira, Fortunato Ramos Cinematography: Gerry Feeny Music: Jaime Torres, Tucuta Gordillo 1988. 95 minutes. Setting: Chorcan, Jujuy, 1964-1982 Languages: Spanish; some Coya. Availability: DVD	A teacher (Juan José Camero) is assigned to Chorcán, a poor mountain village in the Jujuy province of northwestern Argentina. There he befriends Veronico Cruz (Gonzalo Morales), a boy who has lost his parents. When the grandmother dies, the boy moves in with the teacher, who inspires him with knowledge of the world outside the village, particularly the sea. Stark images and sparse dialogue convey the bleak poverty of life in the village and the growing hints, alternately alluring and frightening, of a bigger world outside, including the military coup of 1976. Indigenous music with flutes and charangos greatly enhances this subtle, restrained, poetic and haunting film, the first from director Miguel Pereira. Based on true stories told by the musician, poet, and teacher Fortunato Ramos (who plays a small part in the film as Veronico's father). La deuda interna won awards in Argentina, Colombia, and Germany.
	GERÓNIMA Director: Raúl Alberto Tosso Writers: Carlos Paola, Jorge Pellegrini Cinematography: Carlos Torlaschi Music: Arnaldo di Pace 1986. 96 minutes. Setting: El Cuy, in General Roca, Patagonia, 1976 Language: Spanish Availability: VHS-PAL (no subtitles)	Gerónima Sande, a Mapuche woman, lives with her four children in a one-room shack in the nearly deserted town of El Cuy in the wastelands of Patagonia where the wind never stops howling. The oldest son occasionally catches an armadillo for them to eat, and they also live by the graces of the trading post. The film shows the lingering devastation wrought by the Argentine government's Campaña del Desierto of the 1880s, which forced the Mapuches out of their fertile land in the south and into the most inhospitable regions of Patagonia. Watching the film, you can't tell what century it is until a car appears halfway through the movie. One day, the oldest son catches a large bird on a neighbor's property, and the neighbor calls the authorities. When they discover the extreme poverty the family lives in, Geronima is taken to a mental hospital, and the children are also examined. The doctors debate about what to do with the family living "like animals" and interrogate her about her religion and customs to evaluate her sanity. Finally, they decide to release the family, and they go back to their squalor. Slow-moving, bleak, harrowing, the film occasionally brings to mind One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next. Mapuche actress Luisa Calcumil prepared for the role by not showering for six months. Based on a true story, which was also told in the book Geronima, by Dr. Jorge Pellegrini, published the same year. Sinopsis en español: La película reconstruye el drama verídico de Gerónima, una mujer mapuche que vivía alegrías, tristezas y privaciones con sus cuatro hijos en un humilde ranchito en la Patagonia en tierras que han pertencido a su pueblo por generaciones. En 1976 unos trabajadores sociales del hospital de la zona, buscando ayudarla internan a toda la familia para hacerles un chequeo general de salud, suponiendo que ésta sería delicada, dado la precariedad de sus condiciones de vida, pero esa ayuda se convierte para Gerónima en un verdadero infierno. Fue realizada en base a un guión de escrito a partir de la grabación de una entrevista a la verdadera Gerónima durante su estancia en el hospital. Es interpretada por la actriz mapuche Luisa Calcumil, quien debutó con esta actuación, al igual que Patricio Contreras y Mario Luciani. La música incluye canciones interpetadas por la cantante mapuche Aimé Painé.
	HOMBRES DE BARRO (Men of Clay) Director: Miguel Mirra Writers: Miguel Mirra, Eulogio Frites Cinematography: Gerardo Silvaticci Music: Gustavo Moretto 1988. 85 minutes. Setting: Palca de Azparzo, Jujuy Language: Spanish Availability: VHS (no subtitles)	A group of filmmakers travel to a Kolla community in Salta to film their folkways. We see all aspects of their life: farming, herding, cooking, football, and making music during a Pachamama festival. In the course of filming, the leader of the Kolla community changes the filmmakers' view of what the documentary should be, and at the end of their visit they are changed. "La vida se puede ir amasando, como el barro": As life goes along, it becomes more pliant, like clay. An announcement at the beginning of the film states that this is neither fiction nor documentary, but I'd say it's closer to documentary. Only in the last half-hour of the film does it start to feel like fiction, when one of the men in the community travels with the filmmakers to the city to look for his son, whom he has not seen since he left to find a job. The urban scenes show people preparing for a parade for the "Mascara de la Conquista", wearing elaborate samba-like costumes far different from their Andean traditions. You can find reviews of Hombres de barro at the Miguel Mirra Blogspot. Warning: this film shows a sheep getting its throat cut, which some viewers might find disturbing (about 45 minutes in).
	HORIZONTES DE PIEDRA (Stone Horizons) Director: Román Viñoly Barreto Writers: Román Viñoly Barreto, Eliseo Montaine, Atahualpa Yupanqui Cinematography: Antonio Prieto Music: Atahualpa Yupanqui 1956. 86 minutes. B&W. Setting: Cerro Bayo, Patagonia Language: Spanish Availability: VHS-PAL (no subtitles)	In Cerro Bayo, a mountainous region of Patagonia on the Chilean border, a Coya Indian falls in love with a girl from another village. His mother disapproves of the relationship and hates the woman. When the girl becomes pregnant with his baby, he must travel to find better work, leaving her alone with the mother's wrath. Based on the 1943 novel Cerro Bayo : Vidas y costumbres montañesas by Atahualpa Yupanqui, the film is also richly embellished with the guitar maestro's soulful folk music. The excellent cinematography conveys the desolation of the pampa, but also warmly captures the Kolla people singing, dancing and farming. The film seems to validate the Inca saying, "El hombre es tierra que anda": Man is earth that walks.
	EL LARGO VIAJE DE NAHUEL PAN (The Long Journey of Nahuel Pan) Director/writer: Jorge Zuhair Jury Cinematography: Héctor Collodoro Music: Jorge Candia 1995. 90 minutes. Setting: Buenos Aires Language: Spanish, occasional Mapudungun Availability	When a Mapuche community is displaced from their land by authorities, one of their members, Nahuel Pan (Fabián Gianola), decides to confront the president of Argentina and tell him about his people's problems. On the bus to Buenos Aires he meets Fernando (Alberto Segado), a gay businessman, who invites Nahuel to his home. Fernando's dissolute lifestyle of costume parties and heavy drinking begins to seem more and more empty and frivolous as he identifies with Nahuel's quest to overcome beaurocracy and indifference. Occasionally funny and ultimately heartbreaking. Sinopsis en español: Al ser desterrada la tribu Mapuche a la cual pertenece, Nahuel Pan decide emprender un viaje a la capital, para entrevistarse con el Presidente e informarle acerca del desamparo en que viven sus hermanos.
	MALAMBO Director: Alberto de Zavalia Writer: Hugo MacDougall Cinematography: Roque Funes, Antonio Merayo, José Suárez Music: Alberto Ginastera 1942. 95 minutes. Setting: Santiago de Estero Language: Spanish Availability: VHS (no subtitles)	Based on a quechua legend, Malambo tells the story of a woman who lost her husband and son because of the greedy patrón of an hacienda. She swore that she would never remove the cloth over her eyes until her dead were avenged by the deaths of the patrón and his daughter. Nature seems to be on her side, since a drought has afflicted the land. Her other son, Malambo, accepts the duty of revenge. Malambo (Oscar Valicelli) is no normal human: he is the runa-uturungo, or Hombre Tigre, of Quechua lore, and he cannot be wounded by bullets. He leads the obreros to rise in revolt and defeats the patrón. However, instead of killing the patrón's daughter--the blind Urpila (Delia Garcés)--he falls in love with her, thereby breaking his mother's heart. Malambo follows in the path of other Argentinan labor revolt films such as Prisioneros de la tierra and Las aguas bajan turbias. The video I saw, released by Blakman, has poor video and sound quality, like most Blakman releases. Sinopsis en español: Malambo promete matar a a la ciega Urpila y a su padre (culpable de la miseria de Santiago de Estero) pero se anamora de aquella. El film es un verdadero poema cinematográfico, realizado en el tono y con la intención de un poema. Alberto de Zavalia se atrevió con una leyenda, llena de sugestión y misterio, evocando la lucha del hombre con la tierra seca. Malambo se enfrenta con el hombre egoista, que viene del mar a explotarlo, y el hombre contra el destino, cruel y despiadado que le arranca la fe y tuerce su vida. El tema sorprende por lo elevado de su concepción y por la poesía con que esta expresado. Poesía simbólica y drama de la vida humilde entroncan felizmente en Malambo.
	MASCARA DE LA CONQUISTA Director/writer: Miguel Mirra Cinematography: Javier Miquelez Music: Los Jaivas Editing: José María del Peón 1986. 85 minutes. Setting: unnamed country, 16th century Language: Spanish Availability: none	The film tells two parallel stories. One, set in the present, tells of a pagent about the conquest of America, while the other, set in the 15th century, tells of a group of conquistadors coming ashore searching for gold. The film takes place in an unnamed country, but it is listed here since Mirra's other film, Hombres de barro, is also on this page. You can see a film clip on Mirra's blogspot at http://mirraconquista.blogspot.com/ Sinopsis en español: El film tiene dos líneas de relato, una ambientada en el presente donde se representa una obra coreográfica sobre la conquista de América y otra ambientada en el siglo quince donde un grupo de conquistadores españoles desembarca en algún lugar de América y se interna en el continente en busca de oro. En ambos casos y de distinta forma, el continente les hará caer las máscaras, y les obligará a mostrar sus verdaderos rostros.
	LA NAVE DE LOS LOCOS (The Ship of Madmen) Director: Ricardo Wullicher Writers: Gustavo Wagner, Ricardo Wullicher Cinematography: Jaume Peracaula Music: Luis María Serra 1995. 104 minutes. Setting: Santiago de Estero Language: Spanish; a few lines of Mapuche Availability: DVD (no subtitles)	When Pilkumán, cacique of the local Mapuche community, sees that machines are beginning to dig up their ancestral burial grounds, he sets fire to the hotel that has begun developing there. The hotel owner's son dies in the fire, and Pilkumán is arrested. Pilkumán (played by Mario Lorca) refuses to explain his actions, but the female lawyer who chooses to defend him learns that the cacique acted in accordance with Caleuche, the mythic ship of souls, which appeared to him and inspired his act. Despite the interesting premise, the film devolves into a run-of-the-mill courtroom drama that never really taps into its mythic material. Luisa Calcumil of Geronima finally returns to the screen to play the chamán in this film.
	LA PELÍCULA DEL REY (The King and his Movie) Director: Carlos Sorín Writers: Jorge Goldenberg, Carlos Sorín Cinematography: Esteban Courtalon Music: Carlos Franzetti 1985. 107 minutes. Setting: Buenos Aires; Patagonia; 1980s Language: Spanish; a few lines of Mapuche Availability: DVD	Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was a French lawyer who, while traveling through Argentina in 1860, sympathized with the Mapuche Indians and used his legal expertise to defend them against the invading governments of Argentina and Chile. Declaring himself king of Patagonia and Araucania, Tounens united the various Mapuche tribes, created a flag, and even minted coins. Unfortunately Tounens was captured, declared insane, and sent back to France. Cut to the 20th century: a filmmaker (played by Julio Chávez), fascinated with the story of Tounens, decides to make a film about it against all odds. He suffers a series of mishaps, including the desertion of the producer, actors, and crew, legal tangles, financial woes, union problems, and anything else that can go wrong with making a film. Enduring it all and never giving up, Arturo begins to seem as mad and Quixotic as the King of Patagonia himself. But as we watch him bring his film to completion with ingenious improvisations devised to overcome obstacles, we come to appreciate the bond between madness and the creative drive. This is a delightful film, although as the scenes of the film-within-a-film get better and better, it leaves us hungry to see that epic movie Arturo makes.
	THE ROAD (El Camino) Director: Javier Olivera Writers: Constanza Novik, Javier Olivera Cinematography: Cristian Cottet Music: Axel Krygier 2000. 107 minutes. Setting: Buenos Aires; Neuquen; and towns in between Languages: Spanish Availability: DVD	Manuel, a sheltered young man from Buenos Aires, treks across Patagonia on his motorcycle in search of the father he never met. On the way, a barroom brawl lands him in jail, where he witnesses a cop beating another prisoner. He escapes and continues his journey to Neuquen, while the corrupt cop chases him. Arriving in Neuquen, Manuel finds that his father is an anthropologist helping the Mapuche Indians to preserve their culture. His father's friend Casimino (Rubén Patagonia) helps Manuel to foil the corrupt cop and persuades him to stop running and report the crime to the police. The plot is similar to another Argentine film, the wonderful Fuga de cerebros, but unfortunately El Camino is improbable, unfocused, and mediocre.
	SHUNKO Director: Lautaro Murúa Writers: Augusto Roa Bastos, Jorge W. Abalos Cinematography: Vicente Cosentino Music: Waldo de los Ríos 1960. 72 minutes. B&W. Setting: Huaico Hondo, a Quichua settlement in Santiago del Estero Language: Spanish; some Quichua Availability: VHS-PAL (no subtitles)	Based on the 1949 novel Shunko by Jorge W. Abalos (1915-1979). A teacher comes to a remote Quichua settlement to introduce reading and writing to the children. The education turns out to be mutual, as the teacher learns much about their culture and how it sustains them in their primitive, arduous lives. When he gives a scientific explanation of an eclipse, the children find his story unsatisfactory, and bring him to an old woman who tells the story of how the sun and moon were in love. The film features child actors with no prior experience, most of whom had never even seen a movie before, let alone acted in one. Their naturalistic performances free the film from cuteness or sentimentality. The story culminates when the children are invited to a gathering of schools and a fight breaks out between the ragged campesinos and the well-dressed pupils from the wealthier schools. At 72 minutes, Shunko leaves out many scenes from the book that could have been included, leaving the viewer wishing for more. UNESCO chose Shunko as the most important film in Argentine history. This film is similar to Veronico Cruz, but the emphasis in Shunko is not on the titular character (played by Angel Greco) but on the community as a whole.
	TIERRA DEL FUEGO Director: Miguel Littín Writers: Tonino Guerra, Miguel Littin, Luis Sepúlveda Cinematagraphy: Giuseppe Lanci Music: Milladoiro, Ángel Parra 2000. 100 minutes. 2.35:1 Setting: Tierra del Fuego, 1880s-1890s Languages: Spanish; some Selk'nam and Italian Availability: DVD (no subtitles)	Based on Francisco Coloane's 1956 short story collection and the diaries of Julius Popper, this film tells the story of the Romanian Julius Popper (played by Jorge Perugorría), an arrogant adventurer who led an expedition into Tierra del Fuego in search of gold and sought to exterminate the Ona natives living there. The Ona (also known as Selk'nam) were a nomadic people who relied on minimal or no shelter aside from their furs. Popper's ragtag crew of mercenaries defeat them fairly quickly, except for one surviving girl taken prisoner by an old man. Sad story, fine cinematagraphy and music. The Argentine DVD has no subtitles and presents Littin's widescreen epic in puny fullscreen. Let's hope for a better re-issue with subtitles.
	LA ÚLTIMA SIEMBRA (The Last Sowing) Director: Miguel Pereira Writer: Miguel Pereira Cinematography: Esteban Courtalon Music: Takuta Gordillo, Ariel Petrocelli 1991. 115 minutes. Setting: Jujuy (province in NW Argentina) Languages: Spanish Availability: VHS (no subtitles)	After his son dies in a mining accident, a Coya Indian named Chauqui (Patricio Contreras) leaves the mine and finds work on an hacienda, raising corn. The hacendero is kind and gives Chauqui his own plot of land, but Chauqui is harassed by another worker, an arrogant, drunken gaucho. The gaucho's illegitimate son José (played by Gonzalo Morales, who starred in the director's first film Veronico Cruz) befriends Chauqui. One day the hacendero's son Patricio returns from college in the U.S. to introduce modern farming and business practices. When the hacendero is injured in a riding accident, Patricio takes over management of the hacienda, and he orders Chauqui to clear the cornfield in a week. When he returns to find the cornfield still standing and Chauqui hungover, they fight, and Patricio has him arrested. Chronicling the rapid social changes of the 20th century through a gripping family saga, La Ultima siembra is reminiscent of William Faulkner's great novels. Based on the 1967 short story collection Los Humildes, by Miguel Pereira, the director's father. (If you like La ultima siembra, you might also like the Mexican film Casta Divina.) Sinopsis en español: En el noroeste de Argentina, Chauqui, un minero jujeño de sangre índia, pide trabajo en la estancia La Almona, porque quiere alejarse de su ocupación anterior luego de que su hijo perdiera la vida en un accidente. En La Almona, Chauqui cae bajo la dominación del altivo gaucho Julián, aunque logra hacerse amigo del hijo natural de éste, José. La estancia también es escenario de la puja entre los que andan a caballo, y los que prefieren una mas "moderna" bicicleta, lo cual no es sino reflejo superficial de un conflicto mas profundo, que se agudiza con la llegada de Patricio, un ingeniero agrónomo que regresa diplomado de los Estados Unidos. Patricio trae nuevas ideas, apoyado en los datos y estadísticas que le brinda su computadora, y se dispone de inmediato a ponerlas en práctica. Las consecuencias serán, inevitablemente, dramáticas y hasta violentas.
	EL ÚLTIMO MALÓN (The Last Uprising) Director/writer: Alcides Greca 1917. 72 minutes. b&w. silent. Setting: Santa Fe, San Javier, 1904 Language: Spanish Availability: none	Silent film depicting an uprising of 900 Mocoví Indians in San Javier, a town in the Santa Fe province of Argentina on April 21, 1904. Much of the first is like a documentary, showing the Mocovíes' lifestyle: they hunt birds (guacamayas, tuyangos, ostriches), and a small alligator called yacaré; they imbibe an alcoholic drink called latagá, and they participate in dances and in a parade to the patron saint Javier. After the anthropological sequence, we see the events leading up to the rebellion. The old corrupt cacique Bernardo López has been given land by the gringos and lives a life of comfort with his young companion, the mestiza Rosa Paiquí (played by Rosa Volpe). He becomes jealous when, at a dance, he sees Rosa dancing with his bastard brother, Jesús Salvador López. He banishes Rosa to an island. Salvador leads a rebellion against the rich gringos, but the rebellion is not successful. He rescues Rosa from the island and they ride off together on a horse, while the Mocovíes flee to Gran Chaco. For its uniqueness and antiquity (it is one of the oldest surviving Argentine films), El último malón is a fascinating document, but probably not a great film in its own right. It works like a children's picture book, with both text and images superfluously describing each action, rather than using just a minimum of text to explain what the images cannot convey. Writer-director Alcides Greca (1889-1956), whose father emigrated from Germany, was born in San Javier and became a writer and lawyer. One of the slain Indians found after the revolt had been a servant in his house, with whom he had been close as a boy. Many of the actors he used in the film, both white and Mocovi, had taken part in the revolt. Greca later wrote a novel, Viento norte: novela del norte santafecino (1927), which included a chapter on the 1904 uprising.

Condor de oro (Enrique Muzio, 1996)
Crónica de un extraño (Miguel Mirra, 1997)
[A colla teenager moves to Buenos Aires to become a boxer. Unfinished.]
Excursion a los indios ranqueles (Derlis M. Beccaglia, 1965) [unfinished]
Hijo del rio (Ciro Cappellari, 1991)
Leyenda del puente inca (José A. Ferreyra, 1923)
Martin Fierro (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1968)
Martin Fierro, el ave solitaria (Gerardo Vallejo, 2006)
Mascara de la conquista (Miguel Mirra, 1985)
Milagro de Ceferino Namuncurá (Máximo Berrondo, 1971)
[A Mapuche woman married to a businessman is cured by a mapuche curandero.]
Pampa barbara (Lucas Demare & Hugo Fregonese, 1945)
[Malon Indians and gauchos battle for territory in the pampas.]
Prisioneros de la tierra (Mario Soffici, 1939) [based on stories by Horacio Quiroga]
Savage Pampas (Hugo Fregonese, 1965) [U.S. remake of Pampa barbara]
Tayin Mapu: Leyendas Mapuches (Facundo Ramilo, 2005)
Ultimo Perro (Lucas Demare, 1956)
Vuelta de Martin Fierro (Enrique Dawi, 1974) [musical]
Zafra (Lucas Demare, 1958)
[Collas living on the Argentine-Bolivian border are enslaved on sugar plantations.]

A Juan, jefe de tribu
Collective authorship, 1991, 8 min.
Una reflexión personal en forma de misiva dirigida al jefe de un poblado guaraní, ubicado en las inmediaciones, en las cataratas de Iguazú.

Les diamants des jaguars
Raoul Held, 1984, 25 min.
A legend tells how jaguars guard the lost treasure of the Guarari from the greed of white men.
]Una leyenda narra cómo los jaguares resguardan el tesoro perdido de los guaraní de la ambición de los hombres "blancos".]

Hijos de la tierra
José Roberto Levy, 2000, 24 min.
La tierra y sus hijos; campesinos que viven por y para ella. Paulino y Delia, de Maimará (Argentina), se han tenido que integrar en una cooperativa porque tenían muchos problemas para producir y vender sus verduras. Don Lolo es un humilde poeta de Tonaya (México) que sólo siembra maíz de temporal y que el resto del año sobrevive junto a su hermana melliza gracias a los dólares que les mandan los sobrinos de Estados Unidos. Otros ya no quieren perpetuarse, así que trabajan para que sus hijos estudien y dejen de trabajar la tierra. Lázaro, de Tuti (Perú), cosecha papas enfermas mientras Narcisa, su esposa, atiende un restaurancito. Esperando el amanecer, la lluvia y la suerte, labran su vida los hijos de la tierra.

Kultrun
Mar Luchetta, 2008, 15 min.
Based on the novel Lluvia seca by José Luis Parisse. A mestiza girl goes to her dying nanny, a Mapuche woman, to participate in her leave-taking ritual in Lago Nahuel Huapí. The famous dancer Maximiliano Guerra plays the chief (lonco), and also native actors from the Paisil-Antriao community.
[Nieve Roja, muchacha mestiza, acude a la ceremonia donde su Nodriza mapuche, (interpretada por Sofía Antriao, integrante de la Comunidad Paisil-Antriao), es despedida de esta Tierra, con todos los auténticos rituales propios del pueblo originario mapuche.]