Chuquiago

As a child, this film inspired me to become a filmmaker and brought light to the questions I had about the inequality in the Bolivian class system.

This flick was shown at a filmfest at George Mason University back in 1983. There was an intro by an agitating professor who was hell-bent on making sure we did not reach our own conclusions. But, I had a Bolivian neighbor (who was studying economics) who told me with a shrug that he'd seen it, and once you've seen Chuquiago you've seen every other Bolivian movie.

Essentially it's a propaganda piece along the lines of Sergei Eisenstein's silent Russian works, and was meant to incite the Indios into revolution against their Spanish/Jewish bosses. Such a policy might be short-sighted considering the background of the producers.

The four characters are a fellow who makes an investment and gets cheated, and Indian kid who's resigned to working until the day he dies, and two other forgettable people. Cut me some slack here! It's been 30 years and I need to get to 10 lines. On the plus side the background music and cinematography are both worth it and have no desire to travel to Bolivia. I thought about this while watching an episode of South Park where the pan flute players are keeping the killer guinea pigs at bay.

I'd just about class 'Chuquiago' as a good film, even if it is one that does lose interest as it goes on.

The short run time of around 86 minutes means it doesn't ever stray into boring territory, thankfully. The stories of Isico and Johnny are the standouts of this anthology flick, those with Carlos and Patricia aren't as watchable but aren't necessarily uninteresting either - just 'meh'. It's neat to see 1970s La Paz, while the music is solid.

///// s/o the cast: Néstor Yujiri Edmundo Villarroel David Sàntalla Tatiana Aponte Alejandra Quispe Jesusa Mangudo Lupe Andrade Rafo Mory Hugo Pozo Raúl Ruiz.