Progress and decline of Peruvian cinema
In 1960, Kukuli became the first film to be shot in Quechua. Directed by Eulogio Nishiyama, Luis Figueroa and César Villanueva, it tells an Andean tale. Armando Robles Godoy was the first Peruvian New Wave auteur, inspired by the great European figures of the time (Resnais, Antonioni). He produced two masterpieces inspired by his years living in the heart of the forest: En la selva no hay estrellas (1967, Gold Award, Moscow) and La muralla verde (1969, Gold Hugo, Chicago).
In 1972, a new, reformist military government set up a legal framework to encourage national production. In the years that followed, two directors turned their attention to the Andean peoples: Luis Figueroa, with Los perros hambrientos (1976) and Federico García Hurtado, with Tupac Amaru (1984). The 1980s also saw the birth of the Chaski group, comprising Alejandro Legaspi, Fernando Espinoza and Stefan Kaspar, who made two films portraying Lima street children: Gregorio (1982) and Juliana (Unicef prize at the 1989 Berlinale).
The 1990s were marked by a sharp decline, due to the repeal of the law introduced by the government in 1972. The revival began in the early 2000s. In many of Peru's major cities, multiplexes appeared alongside malls. Their programming is mostly mainstream American cinema. In Lima, there are still a few important and interesting festivals with a more specialized focus.
A country marked by armed conflict
Cinema focuses on recent history whose wounds have yet to be healed. Salvador del Solar's Magallanes(2015), presented in competition at the Goya Awards, features a gallery of characters who must face the ghosts of the armed conflict that shook Peru in the 1980s and 1990s when the Shining Path went guerrilla in the Ayacucho region. Most recently, La Hora Final (2017) traces the operation that decapitated the country's most notorious paramilitary organization.
Francisco Lombardi, with La Gueule du Loup (1988), also recounts the violent clashes between the Peruvian army and the Shining Path faction of the Peruvian Communist Party. It won awards in Havana and San Sebastian. Claudia Llosa is one of the leading figures in Peruvian cinema. Her 2008 film Fausta won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It tells the story of a young girl marked by the events of the Shining Path. It premiered at the 59th Berlin Film Festival in February 2009, where it was awarded the Golden Bear, and was nominated for a 2010 Oscar in the "Best Foreign Film" category. She previously directed Madeinusa in 2006. In 2014, she signed Aloft with Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy and Mélanie Laurent, followed by Fever Dream, a film noir thriller in 2021.
Josue Mendez'sDias de Santiago (2004) tells the story of a young Peruvian soldier's return from the front, when he finds himself thrown into a world of morals in the middle of the capital that clashes with his upright military training.
More recently, Cancion sin nombre (2019) narrates the misadventures of a woman who gives birth during the events of the 1980s. When the clinic that treated her refuses to tell her where her child is, she investigates with the help of a journalist. Finally, Tatuajes en la memoria (2024) by Luis Llosa, with screenplay by Mario Vargas Llosa, looks at the indoctrination of children during the terrorist era.
As for documentaries, El Choque de Dos Mundos (2016) by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel looks back at a recent event in Peruvian history, el Baguazo, a confrontation between indigenous Awajun communities and Peruvian army soldiers who were ordered to attack.
Trends in contemporary cinema
In 2018, Ayacucho is once again in the spotlight with a film by Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio entitled Retablo (Mon père, in French). Here, we slip into the world of the craftsmen who make retablos, the little two-leaf wooden huts that hide characters and a story carved from medlar and potato flour. This international co-production, selected at Sundance and the Berlinale, evokes the repressed homosexuality of a father and the difficult openness to the world of an Andean people rooted in their traditions and fragile in the face of modernity.
Contracorriente (2009, San Sebastian award) by Javier Fuentes Leon tells the story of Miguel, who lives in the fishing village of Cabo Blanco in the north of the country. In this traditional world, he has a hidden affair with a painter, Santiago. When Santiago dies, his ghost appears to him and he continues his romance with him for a while. But the village gets wind of the romance and Miguel's wife leaves him.
A more committed trend, recognized by festivals abroad, is towards auteur cinema, with a particular focus on the Andes and the rural way of life. These include WinayPacha (2017), shot entirely in Aymara, and Yan-Wara by the same team. César Galindo's Willaq Pirqa (2022), which many have described as a tribute to Cinéma Paradiso, was a big hit with audiences, telling the story of Sistu's discovery of cinema in the 1970s. The film was nominated for a Goya. More recently, Kinra, el viaje de Atoqcha (2023) won the international competition at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. The film tells the story of Atoqcha's migration to the city of Cusco and his attachment to his Andean roots and his village. Cielo abierto (2023), another auteur film about the gap between a stonemason father and his son, premiered at the Rotterdam Festival. Finally, Érase una vez en los Andes (2023) premiered at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). A period film, it tells the love story of an Andean peasant woman and a Chilean soldier. Many of these films d'auteur remain confidential and little known on the national territory.
In a country with a relatively weak cultural support policy, there is a great deal of documentary creativity to be welcomed. Javier Corcuera's Sigo Siendo is a tribute to folklore and music, while Mariana Tschudi's Pacificum (2017) is an ode to the Pacific Ocean. Committed films from the Ernesto Caballos Damián and Guarango Productions team include Hija de la Laguna (2015), a look back at the water conflict in Cajamarca and respect for the Yacumama (mother-water in Quechua). Wändari (2023) looks back at the ravages of illegal mining in the Amazon for indigenous peoples.
In recent years, a number of Peruvian comedies have also met with great success: Carlos Alcántara's Asu Mare (over 3 million viewers), which has since been adapted in several versions, Fernando Villarán's Viejos Amigos and Bruno Ascenzo's A los 40. And let's not forget Alvaro Velarde's offbeat comedies El destino no tiene favoritos (2003) and Como quien no quiere la cosa(That Thing You Love, 2013). Horror films also have their local vintages, the best-known being the two-volume Cementerio General.
Herzog and Kinski in Peru
Among the great foreign classics, let's mention the masterful works of German director Werner Herzog Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, shot in Peru. In these two films, actor Klaus Kinski revealed the full extent of his talent and madness. The first, released in 1972, tells the story of a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado in the Amazon rainforest in 1560, while the second, made in 1982, tells the picaresque story of Fitzcarraldo, a man who embarks on a rubber tree business to finance the construction of an opera house in Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian rainforest, worthy of the Manaus Opera House, where the great Caruso would sing.
