Peruvian director Oscar Catacora‘s latest film looks to be a study in minimalism. For starters, it features only two characters: Willka and Phaxsi. The elderly couple spend their days fending for themselves in the Andes, chatting only with one another about days gone by and about the son they hope will return once more to their lives. Set against the foggy verdant mountains of Peru, Willka and Phaxsi’s story is a deeply personal one for Catacora, who grew up with his grandparents in not too dissimilar circumstances.
And while he cites Ozu and Kurosawa as inspirations for this meditative film, Wiñaypacha (Eternidad) is no doubt a homegrown production. Not only does it offer painterly landscapes of the Andes, llamas and all, but it is the very first movie shot entirely in Aymara. As Catacora’s characters tell us in the film’s official trailer, their own son now refuses to speak that indigenous language out of shame. A new entry in Peruvian cinema, Wiñaypacha is yet another addition to a growing canon of films around the world that hope to rescue and celebrate indigenous traditions and languages (see: Guatemala’s Ixcanul, Colombia’s Embrace of the Serpent, and Australia’s Tanna). Take a look at this project below, which has already earned awards from the Guadalajara International Film Festival and which will surely be picking up more in the months to come.
[h/t: Latino USA]