EL PERÚ
| ||||||
Yawar Fiesta; Aguirre; Tupac Amaru; Fitzcarraldo; The Secret of the Incas
= Lame, Crummy.
= OK, Watchable.
= Good.
= Very Good.
= Great, Classic.
| Home |
| ||||||
= Lame, Crummy.
= OK, Watchable.
= Good.
= Very Good.
= Great, Classic.
| 16th CENTURY | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN
|
Based on a play by Peter Shaffer. English actors play Spaniard and Inca alike in this stiff, verbose
drama, which isn't nearly as cool as the cover suggests. We begin with a
long debate between Francisco Pizarro and King Carlos about
whether Spain should fund another expedition to the New World. In this long first scene the
film still feels like a play. When we finally get to Peru, Christopher Plummer brings a
welcome eccentricity to the role of the Inka Atawalpa, whose empire is pulled out from under his feet.
The film's viewpoint is entirely European, with little sympathy for the conquered.
This Cinemascope production seems like a last gasp
from the old-school historical epics before a grittier style took over.
Sinopsis en español: | |||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (Aguirre, the Wrath of God)
|
The Quechua Indians play minor roles, and the Amazon-dwelling Yagua Indians appear even more briefly, but they loom large over the
fate of the hubristic conquistadors in this masterpiece by German
director Werner Herzog.
After seeking his fortune in the Peruvian highlands, the renegade soldier Lope de Aguirre (c. 1510-1561) joins
an expedition down the Amazon with 300 Spanish soldiers and several hundred Quechua prisoners to find El Dorado, the City of Gold. Aguirre mutinies against
the leader Pedro de Ursúa and his successor, Fernando de Guzmán, eventually claiming himself Prince of Peru and the Wrath of God. German
actor Klaus Kinski is brilliant as the mad, limping conquistador driving his companions to doom on the unknown Amazon and makes this
historical drama feel more like a horror film. The migration of Spain's worst criminals to the New World would shape the history of
Latin America for centuries to come.
Sinopsis en español: 
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
EL DORADO
|
It's surprising that anyone attempted to bring this story to the screen again after Herzog's critically acclaimed Aguirre.
Spanish director Saura has not added a bold new vision to the myth, or even a new twist. He simply made a longer movie.
It moves slowly, and it takes a while for Lope de Aguirre to emerge as an interesting character, but the cinematography, period
details and acting are all excellent. If you watch El Dorado without having seeing Herzog's Aguirre, it's
a great movie. It just doesn't quite have that extra spark of genius that makes the earlier film so riveting. Available
on Youtube for a fee. youtube.com/watch?v=2OzI_-09O5E
Sinopsis en español: |
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
INCA GARCILASO, EL MESTIZO
|
A low-budget biopic of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (played by Ricardo Luna), son of an Inca princess and a Spanish invader.
Garcilaso was born in Cusco in 1539 in
the midst of the Spanish conquest. His father left him when he was very young, and he was raised by his Inka family, speaking Quechua
as his first language. His mother, Palla Chimpu Oqllo, was a granddaughter of the tenth Inka, Tupaq Yupanki. At age ten his father
returned and took him into his own household and gave him a Spanish education. His father died
in 1559, and two years later, at age 21 Garcilaso moved to Spain, never to return to Peru. The film covers his childhood very
briefly and includes only one scene in Quechua, a flashback of the boy learning about the great Inka empire from his uncle.
The rest of the film chronicles Garcilaso's long quest for respectability in Spain. He was not allowed to become a noble because he was an illegitimate child, and therefore could not marry the noble española he loved. He then married a Moorish servant, and had a son even more mestizo than himself. Garcilaso's life work was of course Los Comentarios Reales de los Incas, volume one (1609) recording Inka history and culture, and volume two (1617) chronicling the Spanish conquest. But the film portrays his true mission in life to be the valorization of mestizaje, the fusion of cultures, the coupling of knowledge. Unfortunately the theme could not be fully explored because of the brevity of the film and its financial limitations. Mael Producciones has also made films on Maimonides and San Juan de la Cruz, also by the father-and-daughter team of Miguel Ángel and Fátima Entrenas. Trailer: youtu.be/sCa9qSfHnC8
Sinopsis en español:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| 17th CENTURY | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
EL BIEN ESQUIVO (The Elusive Good)
|
Jerónimo de Ávila, a mestizo soldier in the Spanish army, returns to his native Peru to find legal
proof that he is the legitimate son of a Spanish captain. He seeks out the small town
where his Quechua mother, whom he has not seen in years, is now dying. Meanwhile, the
Jesuit priests are carrying out a purge of all traces of the indigenous religion, seeking
the sacred objects (huacas or wakas in Quechua) hidden in homes and churches. A parallel
plotline tells the story of Sor Ines, a novitiate nun who secretly writes secular poetry.
When Jeronimo flees from police after killing a man in a tavern brawl, he ducks into the
convent and hides in Ines' cell. The two stories are connected thematically,
both exploring the conflict between church suppression and the individual's need to be
true to oneself. With excellent cinematography and a meticulously recreated 17th century
Peru, El bien esquivo is one of the nation's most ambitious big-budget productions.
Unfortunately the film doesn't show a great deal of indigenous culture. Jeronimo is an
unlikeable rogue, his reunion with his mother on her deathbed lacks tenderness, and since
he has rejected his Quechua past, the film doesn't dwell on it much either.
Sinopsis en español: | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18th CENTURY | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
TÚPAC AMARU
|
A retelling of the Inka uprising led by Túpaq Amaru II. Born José Gabriel Kunturkanki in 1742, he was the son of a kuraka, a local
indigenous leader recognized by the Spanish government. He received a Jesuit education and inherited his father's kuraka title
of Tungasuca and Pampamarca in the Cusco region. In this capacity he
tried to persuade the Spanish authorities to improve the living conditions of the Indians and end the practice of
mita, the Inka tradition of community service which under colonial rule had degenerated into sefdom. Thousands of Indians were
sent
against their will to work in mines of Potosí in Alto Peru (now Bolivia) where most of them died of mercury poisoning. When peaceful negotiations
failed, Kunturkanki rejected Spanish authority and began a rebellion. He adopted the name of his great-great-grandfather Túpaq Amaru (1545-1572),
the last Inka. He amassed an
army of 6000 Indians and led them into battle against the Spanish in 1780. Despite some early victories, the rebellion was defeated within a
year. The entire story is told in flashbacks during a courtroom drama, and the film ends with the cruel execution of Túpaq Amaru in the plaza of
Cusco where the first Túpaq Amaru was also executed. Despite the tragic ending the film is actually quite inspiring. The final, defiant voiceover
is from Alejandro Romualdo's poem "Canto Coral a Túpac Amaru" and predicts an eventual victory for the Indians. In 1975, the plaza which had come
to be known as Waqaypata, The Place of Tears, bore witness to the creation of the Organización Agraria Revolucionaria Túpac Amaru, and
the film
closes with that victory. Thus the film is in effect a prequel for Federico Garcia's first film, Kuntur Wachana (see the
"1950s-1960s" section below). Like many of Garcia's other films, Túpac Amaru is loaded with historical references to people,
places, laws, customs, etc.
that might confuse non-Peruvian audiences. Reading up on the history before watching his films is recommended for full
appreciation.
Sinopsis en español:
Canto Coral a Túpac Amaru
Lo harán volar con dinamita. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| EARLY 20th CENTURY: Fiebre de caucho | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
FITZCARRALDO
|
Werner Herzog's thematic sequel to his earlier Amazon film, Aguirre (see above). This time Klaus Kinski plays a gentler madman,
an English entrepreneur named Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, loosely based on the rubber baron Carlos Fermín Fitzcarrald (1862-1897).
The historical Fitzcarrald enslaved Indians and killed any who refused to work for him, but Herzog's Fitzcarraldo
dreams of building an opera house in the Amazon. In order to
finance his grandiose, Gatsby-esque dream, Fitzcarraldo tries to make his
rubber business more profitable by moving it upriver to a more remote and abundant source of rubber trees.
When a bend in river turns out to be unnavigable, he decides to bypass the bend by hauling
his ship over a steep hill. Fitzcarraldo enlists the aid of dozens of Asháninka Indians to lift the ship uphill
with a complex system of pulleys. But the Englishman doesn't realize that the Asháninka have
their own motive for helping him. Fitzcarraldo is surprisingly
similar to Herzog's previous Kinski-in-the-Amazon film, Aguirre and some critics found it too imitative of the earlier work,
(same actor, same river, same country, etc.) But it is a magnificent film in its own right. The Asháninka
don't appear until an hour into the film, but it's worth the wait. Also recommended:
Burden of Dreams, a feature-length documentary on the making of
Fitzcarraldo, available on DVD.
Sinopsis en español: | |||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
EL SOCIO DE DIOS (God's Partner)
|
While Fitzcarraldo takes an extremely benevolent view of the rubber boom, El socio de Dios exposes the atrocies of
this holocaust in the Amazon. Julio Cesar Arana (1864-1952) is a hat seller in Iquitos but sees an opportunity for riches in the sudden world-wide
demand for rubber.
He quickly dominates the market, buying up land in the Putumayo region of the Amazon and forcing Huitoto Indians (here played by Chama and Bora
Indians) to harvest the rubber. His right-hand man, Loayza, tortures the Huitotos with whipping, burning, rape, and murder. A cadre of activists,
including the British investigator Roger Casement, works to expose their crimes, reporting the death of 30,000 men, women and children.
Finally, the Huitotos rebel, bringing some welcome suspense to the story. Although many explanatory captions are provided, the film remains
somewhat chaotic and confusing, hopping from one
scene to another. In 2012 Federico Hurtado published a novel version of El socio de Dios.
Sinopsis en español: 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1930s | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
JARAWI
|
A young landowner in Cusco is in a relationship with one of the girls who works on his
farm, but then he falls in love with a visitor from Lima. The farm girl seeks to regain
his love with the help of Mariano, a harpist who has moved to Chinchero in search of a
better life. When Mariano becomes the victim of a sacrifice, the farmers rebel
against the landowner. Loosely based on the story "Diamantes y pedernales" by Jose Maria
Arguedas. "Jarawi" in Quechua is a sad love song. The film was criticized for its technical problems, out-of-sync dialogue, and
inexpressive acting on the part of Cesar Zarate (Mariano) and Teodoro Nunez Rebaza (the
landowner). Unfortunately no copies of this film survive. The negatives were destroyed in
a fire in Buenos Aires.
Sinopsis en español: | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
LOS PERROS HAMBRIENTOS (Hungry Dogs)
|
Based on the classic 1937 novel by Ciro Alegría (1909-1967), this film
follows the lives of several families--Indian, cholo, and white--in an unnamed
hamlet in the altiplano. We meet the weathly landowner Don Cipriano, his mayordomo
Don Romulo,
and various families who work the land through times of plenty and times of drought.
We also meet the bandit brothers Blas and Julian Celedón, who steal from their
neighbors and are finally ambushed and killed by a sherrif from the city.
The army forcibly conscripts Mateo, whose wife and 9-year-old son are left to fend
for themselves. And then there is the central family of Simón Robles, a famed
storyteller and sheepdog breeder. They each have their
own story, and it can be confusing to keep track of them all if you haven't read the
book (which has never been published in English). The film has a documentary-like style,
with an anthropologist's attention to
detail, showing the family working the fields, cooking and eating on the
ground, scrubbing their home-made dishes with corn cobs,
feeding their sheep and dogs, singing their folksongs, telling stories,
or just wandering the countryside. Like the novel, the film begins with a
slice-of-life feel to be savored for its images and humor, but slowly turns into a
excruciating account of a drought told in gruesome detail.
Luis Figueroa also directed Kukuli and Yawar Fiesta. Check out
his blog at luifigueroa.blogspot.com
CAST:
Sinopsis en español:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
YAWAR FIESTA (Fiesta de sangre) (Blood Festival)
|
Puquio, a town in Ayacucho (halfway between Lima and Cusco), has a tradition of holding
bullfights each year on July 28, the
Peruvian Independence Day. This year the K'ayau, one of four indigenous communities in the
town, decide to capture Misitu, a legendary wild bull that roams Don Julian's land.
They get permission from Don Julian, but find resistance from other quarters: the whites
in town want to forbid the barbaric custom, and the goverment declares they must hire a
professional bullfighter from Lima. The Lucanas Union, an Indigenist advocacy group inspired
by Mariategui and comprised of assimilated urban mestizos, praises the government for
preventing the Indians from being
injured in the bullfight, not realizing that the K'ayau themselves want to participate,
welcoming the opportunity to prove their manhood, which is normally suppressed
under their landowner bosses. Complicating matters further, another Indian community in Puquio,
the K'oñanis, regard Misitu as an auki, a mountain spirit, and consider it
sacriligious to
capture the sacred bull for the festival. Don Julian, a brutal landowner notorious for abusing
his Indians, favors the manly sport, ironically putting himself on the side of the Indians,
though he is locked up for his aggressive quarrels with the mayor. Finally the professional
bullfight arrives and the mayor orders his troops to shoot any Indian who attempts to
participate in the bullfight. But when the crucial moment comes, the excitement of the
bloody festival and the striking image of a condor tied to the back of the bull leaves
the troops awestruck as the Indians enter the fray.
Yawar Fiesta is based on the 1941 novel by José María Arguedas (1911-1969). An anthropologist, novelist, and poet, Arguedas was brought up bilingually, learning Quechua from the servants in his house. He wrote poetry in Quechua, but for his novels he developed a hybrid of Spanish words and Quechua syntax which allowed him to express an indigenous view of the world. Luis Figueroa's film translates this vision to the screen through a naturalistic style, with the strident sound of Wakawakra horns (bullhorns played before the bullfight), charangos, and the mysterious danzak, or scissor dancer. Much of the story is told through arguments over the bullfight in the town hall and in the saloon, and the subtleties of social class that spur the conflict may not be apparent to all viewers, especially if you haven't read the book. Arguedas' intention was to explore these class differences and portray the full panorama of the contradictory society he was born in.
Sinopsis en español: | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Director: | Walter Salles |
| Writer: | Jose Rivera |
| Cinematography: | Eric Gautier |
| Music: | Gustavo Santaolalla |
| Year/length: | 2004. 126 minutes. |
| Setting: | Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Machu Picchu, Colombia, Venezuela, 1951-2 |
| Language: | Spanish; a few lines of Quechua |
| Indian Content: | low |
| Home Release: | DVD |
| Rating: |
|
Sinopsis en español:
Trata del viaje realizado en 1952, inicialmente en motocicleta, a través de América del
Sur por Ernesto Guevara y su amigo Alberto Granado. Durante el desarrollo de la aventura,
Guevara se descubre a sí mismo transformado por sus observaciones de la vida de los
empobrecidos campesinos indígenas. El camino presenta a Guevara y Granado una verdadera
imagen de la identidad latinoamericana. A través de los personajes que encuentran en el
camino, aprenden sobre las injusticias a las que los pobres se enfrentan y están expuestos
a personas con las que nunca se habían encontrado en su ciudad natal. El viaje sirve para
explorar la identidad de uno de los más memorables revolucionarios.
| Director: | Jerry Hopper |
| Writer: | Ranald MacDougall, Sydney Boehm |
| Cinematography: | Lionel Lindon |
| Music: | David Buttolph, Moises Vivanco |
| Year/length: | 1954. 94 minutes. |
| Setting: | Cusco & Machu Picchu, 1950s |
| Language: | English; some Spanish & Quechua |
| Indian Content: | medium-low |
| Home Release: | Youtube |
| Rating: |
|
Available on Youtube: youtu.be/gjdgj04FzR0
Sinopsis en español:
Harry Steele y el oportunista Ed Morgan llegan al Perú atraídos
por la leyenda del oro de los incas. Según esa leyenda, el imperio
de los incas fue destruido por los dioses cuando el fabuloso tesoro
sagrado de oro y piedras preciosas fue robado del templo del Sol,
hace ya varios siglos, y que se conserva en la tumba de Manco.
Harry tiene un fragmento de un antiguo mapa de piedra que indica
la situación de la tumba. Queriendo anticiparse a Ed Morgan, se
apodera del avión particular del cónsul rumano y se marcha con Emma
Antonescu a Machu-Picchu. Allí encuentra el tesoro, pero Morgan,
que le estaba esperando, se lo arrebata. A partir de ese momento,
se desarrolla una persecución en plena selva entre ambos hombres.
| Director/writer: | Kenneth Hartford |
| Cinematography: | Fred Houston |
| Music: | Les Baxter |
| Year/length: | 1960. 75 minutes. |
| Setting: | deserts and jungles |
| Language: | English |
| Home Release: | none |
This U.S. production, filmed in Peru and Brazil, premiered in Peru in 1960 under the title Cocobolo
but wasn't released in the U.S. until 1963. Hartford went by the pseudonym Kenneth Herts for this film.
Starring William Holmes, Lisa Montell, Harry Knapp, and Juanita Llosa as the Sun Goddess. I have no idea where
to get this film.
| Directors: | Luis Figueroa, Eulogio Nishiyama, and Cesar Villanueva |
| Writers: | Hernan Velarde, Lucho Figueroa, Cesar Villanueva |
| Quechua dialogue: | Hernan Velarde |
| Cinematography: | Eulogio Nishiyama |
| Music: | Armando Guevara Ochoa, Leopoldo La Rosa (conductor), Pueblo de Paucartambo |
| Year/length: | 1961. 67 minutes. |
| Setting: | Paucartambo (town northeast of Cusco) |
| Language: | dialogue in Quechua, narration in Spanish |
| Indian Content: | high |
| Home Release: | DVD (Peru) |
| Rating: |
|
Kukuli is a simple, beautiful film celebrating the culture of the Cusco region, showing many folkways--the festival, the trial marriage, the saywa (custom of placing a stone upon a pile while traveling), honoring the apus (mountain spirits), kissing the ground before entering a new town, and the saqra dance unique to Paucartambo. This was the first full-length film made by Cine Club Cusco, founded in 1955 by Luis Figueroa, Eulogio Nishiyama, Cesar Villanueva, and Victor and Manuel Chambi (sons of the great Cusco photographer Martin Chambi). Cine Club Cusco mostly made documentaries, and Kukuli shows that influence with its emphasis on folkways. Indeed, the scant plot seems constructed specifically to document and celebrate Quechua culture.
Sinopsis en español:
La pastora Kukuli, que vive en las alturas del Cusco, emprende un viaje para participar en
la fiesta de la Mamacha Carmen. En el camino encuentra a Alaku, campesino con quién se
une en Sevinacuy (matrimonio de prueba). En la ruta un brujo les predice la muerte. Al
llegar a las fiestas Kukuli es raptada por el oso Ukuku, que mata a Alaku y finalmente la
sacrifica. Al morir Kukuli se transforma en una llama Blanca y Alaku en una llama negra.
Los habitantes del lugar matan al oso Ukuku, como modo de espiar sus pecados.
Cast:
Kukuli - Judith Figueroa
Alaku - Victor Chambi
Machula (abuelo) - Felix Valeriano
Mamala (abuela) - Martina Mamani
Brujo - Simon Chambi
Ukuku - Lizardo Perez
Priest - Emilio Galli
 |  | |
 |  | |
 |  |
| Director/writer: | Federico García |
| Cinematography: | Jorge Suarez, Pierre Maury |
| Music: | Celso Garrido Lecca, Conjunto Tarpuy, Conjunto Korillacta |
| Year/length: | 1977. 90 minutes. |
| Setting: | Urubamba Valley, 1958-1972 |
| Language: | Quechua, Spanish |
| Indian Content: | high |
| Home Release: | none |
| Rating: |
|
The people who act in this film are not professional actors; some of them the same people who experienced these events in the 50s and 60s. Director Federico García was no doubt influenced by Bolivian director Jorge Sanjinés, who also employed a documentary approach with the participation of Indians who recreated the events they experienced. Sanjinés was exiled from Bolivia and made a film in Peru in 1973, just a few years before Kuntur Wachana. But while Sanjinés avoided "folklore" and "colorismo" in his work to avoid romanticizing the Indians, Kuntur Wachana delights in folkloric elements, especially in the prophetic theme of the title, which predicts that the condors that fled from the arrival of Pizarro would return again and restore strength to the people. The soundtrack, a cantata popular or folk-operetta composed by Chilean Celso Garrido-Lecca, has become one of the classics of the Nueva Canción movement of South American music.
Sinopsis en español:
Saturnino Willka, viejo chamán indígena, llega al Valle Sagrado de los Incas en el Cusco,
con el propósito de organizar un sindicato y preparar a los campesinos para recuperar sus
tierras. Contacta con Mariano Quispe, anciano pastor de ovejas, organizan la invasión y
emprenden la lucha reinvindicativa. Quispe muere envenenado, se desata la represión y el
sindicato es aniquilado. Años después jóvenes comuneros encabezados por José Zúñiga Letona
y Rubén Ascue recomienzan la lucha que concluye, luego de escarmientos y persecuciones,
en su conversión en cooperativa agraria. Muerto el nuevo líder en un confuso incidente,
la cooperativa decide llevar su nombre.
 Mariano Quispe |  Saturnino Willka & Mariano Quispe | |
 |
 Efraín Solís & José Zúñiga Letona | |
 |  |
| Director/writer: | Federico García |
| Cinematography: | Pierre Maury |
| Music: | Ricardo Eyzaguirre, Vientos del Pueblo, Raul Garcia Zarate (guitar) |
| Year/length: | 1981. 86 minutes. |
| Setting: | Huayanay, a town in Huancavelica (central Sierra), 1970s |
| Language: | Quechua, Spanish |
| Indian Content: | high |
| Home Release: | DVD (no English subtitles) |
| Rating: |
|
Sinopsis en español:
Reconstrucción ficcionada del célebre "Caso Huayanay" que puso en evidencia la secular
oposición existente entre el país oficial y el país real, en los pueblos andinos del Perú.
Los comuneros de una apartada región de Huancavelica, en los Andes centrales, aplican sus
propios códigos de justicia y ejecutan a un ladrón de ganado, autor de numerosos crímenes
y abusos con los indios. Renuente a toda llamada de atención de los "waras" o autoridades
comuneras, el bandido es condenado a muerte y ejecutado de acuerdo a las seculares
costumbres de la comunidad. La justicia oficial se ensaña con los comuneros que asumen la
responsabilidad colectiva de los hechos.
 |  | |
 |  | |
 |  | |
 |  |
| Director/writer: | Federico García |
| Cinematography: | Pierre Maury |
| Music: | Carlos Hayre, Ricardo Eyzaguirre, Talleres de la Cancion Popular, Escuela Nacional de Musica |
| Year/length: | 1979. 84 minutes. |
| Setting: | Fuerabamba (town in Apurimac) |
| Language: | Quechua; some Spanish |
| Indian Content: | high |
| Home Release: | none |
| Rating: |
|
Sinopsis en español:
En Fuerabamba, según el mito, la tierra se secó desde que, en tiempos
remotos, el Wamani de la comunidad fue capturado por los conquistadores
ibéricos y hecho prisionero en la hacienda Pamparqui. Por esta razón,
los fuerabambinos perdieron su condición de agricultores y se convirtieron
en abigeos. Durante generaciones trataron de asaltar la hacienda para
liberar al dios prisionero y recuperar su condición de agricultores, pero
siempre fueron rechazados. Laulico, jefe de la cominidad, logra tomar la
hacienda pero luego se desata sobre él y su pueblo una feroz represión.
| Director: | Jorge Sanjinés |
| Writers: | Jorge Sanjinés, Oscar Zambrano |
| Cinematography: | Héctor Ríos, Jorge Vignatti |
| Music: | Camilo Cusi |
| Year/length: | 1973. 98 minutes. |
| Setting: | Tinkuy, 1970s(?) |
| Language: | Quechua; some Spanish |
| Home Release: | none |
| Rating: |
|
A group of strangers then arrive in town. One is a doctor another a Quechua-speaking soldier. They provide medical assistance to the town, then reveal their purpose and their politics: the people must rise up and seize justice for themselves. The community votes and decides to take the strangers' advice. They capture Carriles and his captain again, and execute them. The strangers try to convince some of the men to go with them as they travel down to the upper Amazon to help other communities, but only three men decide to go with them. The strangers warn the community that there may be reprisals, and sure enough the military deploy in both Tinkuy and the guerrilleros' next destination. The film ends with this uncertainly.
Jatun Auka is unapologetically didactic, urging the viewers to understand that the principal enemy is the United States A nerdy-looking U.S. officer appears to be calling the shots in a scene where the authorities dispatch the troops to the two towns. The U.S. officer says the villagers must be persuaded not to side with the guerrillas, and another officers translates this to say they the villagers must be repressed. Another officer takes this to mean that the villagers should be riddled with bullets. It is strange to with this film with the knowledge of what the Sendero Luminoso would later do to campesinos all throughout the Peruvian countryside, forcefully recruiting people and killing all who did not immediately take their side and pledge loyalty.
Sanjinés' next film, Llocsy Caimanta, was made in Ecuador, and he eventually returned to Bolivia to resume making films there. All his other films are listed on the Bolivia page.
Sinopsis en español:
Un grupo de guerrilleros llega a una comunidad indígena con la intención de reclutar
voluntarios. Para demostrar que quieren liberarlos de la explotación, fusilan a un
hacendado y a su capataz por sus crímenes y abusos. Sin embargo, cuando tienen que huir
ante la proximidad del ejército, son pocos los que los siguen.
| Director: | Bernardo Arias |
| Writers: | Bernardo Arias, Hernán Velarde |
| Cinematography: | Eulogio Nishiyama, Jorge Vignati |
| Music: |
Jaime Aparicio Delgado Conjunto Imperial Los Campesinos Raul Garcia (guitar) |
| Year/length: | 1974. 95 minutes. |
| Setting: | Pichiuchiuchiu (fictional town in Apurimac, 1970s) |
| Language: | Spanish, Quechua |
| Indian Content: | very high |
| Home Release: | Youtube |
| Rating: |
|
Hernán Velarde, who wrote the novel (never published) and the screenplay, had envisioned a much more serious film. A Quechua-speaking journalist who had seen the atrocities committed by hacendados in his native Cusco. But when the popular comedian Tulio Loza offered much-needed financing for the film, he insisted on acting in the film, reprising his buffoonish character from the film Nemesio. The result is an almost schizophrenic movie that one critic has since compared to the Holocaust comedy Life is Beautiful. President Juan Velasco Alvarado censored the movie for its subversive elements, but today it is the comic half of the film that is more offensive, with its racist portrayals of the campesinos. To his credit, Tulio Zola has recently made the entire film available on Youtube for free:
youtube.com/watch?v=Mn8WH3eidd8
There are no English subtitles, only Spanish subtitles for the parts in Quechua. About a third of the film is spoken in Quechua.
Sinopsis en español:
En la primera parte del film podemos ver la caracterización de Nemesio Chupaca, el celebre personaje que elaboró e hizo
famoso Tulio Loza a partir de los 60. Es la imagen del típico migrante que viene a Lima buscando superación y un mejor
status y cae en una serie de problemas que hacen que su vida transcurra entre lo jocoso y lo cotidiano. Postula a la
Universidad y no logra su ingreso, pero miente a sus coterráneos, incapaz en reconocer su fracaso. Una vez que decide
retornar a su pueblo es recibido con gran alegría por los humildes campesinos que lo vieron crecer desde niño,
considerando que él, con su conocimiento de las leyes, bien podría defenderlos de los abusos del “patrón” Vaca de Castro.
Entonces se entera de los continuos abusos que el hacendado ejecutaba en contra de la población aborigen. Podemos ver en
la película la ridiculización del pongo; los abusos sexuales en contra de las hijas de los campesinos (el derecho de pernada)
o el “chaco humano” ejecutado contra algún comunero que hubiera osado enfrentar la autoridad de los hacendados, quienes
creían que los indígenas de su territorio eran poco menos que cosas sobre las que podían disponer a su libre albedrío.
Por ser un mentiroso y un cómico la gente del pueblo pierde las esperanzas en él, pero las circunstancias hacen que deba
decidir enfrentar al gamonal y castigarlo por toda esta estela de abusos reiterados.
| FILMS NOT YET REVIEWED: |
|
Abiego (Manuel Chambi, 1970) An unfinished film.
El Amauta (Federico Garcia, 1999. 4 hours, 20 min)
Amor en los andes (Hani Susumu, 1968, 103 min.)
Atahualpa (Roger Asto Leon, 2014, 105 minutes)
Bajo el sol de Loreto (Antonio Wong Rengifo, 1936, 70 min)
Camino de la venganza (a.k.a. La venganza del Indio) (Luis S. Ugarte Y Narciso Rada,
1922)
En la selva no hay estrellas (Armando Robles Godoy, 1967, 90 min.)
Green Hell (James Whale, 1940) Hercules vs. the Sons of the Sun (Osvaldo Civirani, 1964)
La huérfana de Ate (Luis Álvarez Herve, 1930)
Imperio del sol (Ramiro Diaz Tupa, 2003)
Inca Garcilaso, Mestizo (Miguel y Fatima Angel Entrenas, 2017, 78 min.)
Jungle Adventure Campa Campa (Torgny Anderberg, 1976, 94 min)
The Last Movie (Dennis Hopper, 1971, 108 min.)
Nemesio (Oscar Kantor, 1969)
Pueblo viejo (Hans Matos Cámac, 2012)
Sangre de selva (Ricardo Villarán, 1937)
Terror in the Jungle (Milagro en la selva) (Tom DeSimone & Andy Janczak, 1968)
El tesoro de Atahualpa (Roberto Saá Silva, 1924)
El tesoro de Atahualpa ( Vicente Oroná, 1968, 100 min.)
Todas las sangres (Michel Gómez, 1987, 112 min.) |
| SHORT FILMS / CORTOMETRAJES: | ||
|
LA AGONÍA DE RASU ÑITI Director: Augusto Tamayo San Roman Writers: Augusto Tamayo, Anina Sanchez, Alejandro Rossi Cinematography: Cesar Perez Editing: Manolo Cordero 1985. 32 minutes. Setting: central highlands Language: Spanish; songs in Quechua Release: Youtube |
Based on the 1962 story by José María Arguedas. An aged danzak' (dancer) decides that the time has come for him
to die. He hears the wamani (mountain spirit) calling him. He puts on the costume of the scissor dancer,
summons his family, his musicians and his dancing pupil, and dances until he dies. Available on
Youtube.
Sinopsis en español: |
 |
Danzak Director: Gabriela Yepes 2008. 19 min. Nina is a 10-year-old girl whose life dramatically changes when her father, a Master Scissor Dancer, asks her to fulfill her last wish. This is based loosely on the José María Arguedas short story, "La agonia de Rasu Ñiti" (see above), adding another episode and telling the tale from the daughter's point of view. Released as a bonus feature on the DVD of the Colombian film Los viajes del viento (Wind Journeys). | |
 |
Leyenda de las Islas de Pachacamac Director: Álvaro Villarán 1985. 15 min. Narra la historia de la Diosa Cavillaca, pretendida por otros dioses, que compiten por su amor. El bromista Cuniraya será finalmente quien la conquiste. Al seguir manteniendo oculta su identidad, en la forma de un mendigo, la orgullosa Cavillaca, avergonzada por lo que supone una afrenta a su belleza, huye con su hijo hacia el mar. La Diosa y su hijo se convierten en las islas que están frente a Pachacamac en las costas de Lurín, al sur de Lima. Actuación con máscaras del grupo teatral Yuyachkani.
|
|
 |
El sueño del pongo Director: Santiago Álvarez 1970. 8 min. B&W. Adaptation of the classic José María Arguedas story by a Cuban filmmaker. This is not exactly a movie but a collage of still photos shown while a narrator reads Arguedas' story. Available on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=B6uE4e9E_v0 [Un hombrecito indio entra a trabajar de Pongo (sirviente) y su patrón es dueño de una inmensa casona en Perú. El pongo sueña el castigo que recibirá el patrón, por las maldades que ha cometido, después de que ambos hayan muerto.] | |
 |
La última princesa inca Director: Ana de Orbegoso Music: Pauchi Sasaki 14 min. This film is a mini-opera that captures a crucial moment in history: the execution of the last rebel Inca Tupac Amaru II and the political wedding of his niece, Beatriz Clara Coya, to a Spanish army captain. These events that consummated the Spanish conquest of the Inca empire and the official "mestizaje" of Peruvian and Spanish cultures. This experimental film was inspired by a 17th-century painting of the wedding. Trailer: vimeo.com/105991267 | |
 |
Wancho Lima Director: Magda Yeni Salguero Luna 2010, 13 minutes. Aymara and Spanish. A retelling of the 1923 founding of Wancho Lima in Huancané, Puno, as an act of rebellion against the gamonales' abuse of campesinos. They proclaimed the new town to be the new capital of Tawantinsuyo. facebook.com/1681811781842961/videos/2038182392965681/
| |
| MAP OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN PERU: |
Si tienes preguntas, comentarios, o sugerencias, escríbeme a:
[email protected]
