Edgar Condori as seen in ALTIPLANO, a film by Brosens and Woodward. A First Run Features release. Photo copyright © Carl de Keyzer, MAGNUM.
Also Starring:
Director:
Screenwriter:
Producer:
- Heino Deckert
- Peter Brosens
- Jessica Woodworth
- Diana Elbaum
- Sebastien Delloye
- Leontine Petit
- Joost de Vries
Editor:
Music:
Stills Photographer:
Distributor:
Production Company:
* Most external filmography links go to The Internet Movie Database.
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Altiplano (2009/2010)
Also Known As: Fragments of Grace
Opened: 08/20/2010 Limited
| Screenings | 08/20/2010 | |
| Village East | 08/20/2010 - 08/26/2010 | 7 days |
| Laemmle's Musi... | 10/01/2010 - 10/07/2010 | 7 days |
| DVD | 12/14/2010 |
Trailer: Click for trailer
Genre: Foreign Drama (In Spanish, Quechua, English, French, Persian w/English subtitles)
Rated: Unrated
Synopsis
War photographer Grace, devastated after a violent incident in Iraq, renounces her profession. Her Belgian husband, Max, is a cataract surgeon working at an eye clinic in the high Andes of Peru. Nearby, the villagers of Turubamba succumb to illnesses caused by a mercury spill from a local mine. Saturnina, a young woman in Turubamba, loses her fiance to the contamination. Ignorant of its true source, the villagers turn their rage on the foreign doctors, and in the ensuing riot Max is killed. Grace sets out on a journey of mourning to the place of Max's death. Saturnina takes drastic measures to protest against the endless violations towards her people and her land. Grace and Saturnina's destinies merge. ALTIPLANO is a lyrical and probing film about our divided but inextricably linked world.
Director's Statement
ALTIPLANO is built upon moments of trauma and loss but is, fundamentally, an expression of our faith in the possibility of mutual understanding between people. It is also an extension of deeply personal questions.
Grace is a war photographer who has lost her soul in Iraq. She suffers further grief at the loss of her husband. She is forced to evaluate her perception of reality, her obligations of conscience, her relationship to the image, and her sense of worth as an individual and artist. In Peru, the young Saturnina sacrifices her body in protest against corrupt outsiders. Saturnina's spirit and Grace's body eventually touch, thus infusing one another with purpose and power. This symbiosis reflects our conviction that we, mankind, share a common destiny and, therefore, could potentially share a common sense of responsibility.
Our point of departure is always reality. For example, the devastating mercury spill that took place in the Peruvian village of Choropampa in 2000 inspired the first scene of ALTIPLANO. There is an ongoing struggle between Andean communities and mining corporations. This is an invisible war raging - 'invisible' in the sense that it is not considered newsworthy elsewhere. Saturnina's death is based upon a peculiar form of suicide which is evident in certain parts of the Andes – the protest suicide - which Brosens studied extensively in the early 90s during his years spent living between Ecuador and Peru. In fact, Brosens' first documentaries feature an Andean community that is plagued by alcohol, suicide and destructive foreign aid strategies.
But ALTIPLANO is not just a film about the conflicts that dominate in the Andes. Through its style, the film transcends the cultural and historical peculiarities of the region. It is an invitation for contemplation of the human condition with its ongoing movements and tensions between creation and destruction, life and death, past and future, body and soul, growth and decay.
And we firmly reject exoticism, which focuses on the differences between people and which thrives on cliches and prejudices. Exoticism is, by definition, 'the charm of the unfamiliar' and the representation of one culture for consumption by another. We believe in a respectful dialogue between cultures, which is linked to an introspective dialogue with our own personal pasts. ALTIPLANO is made with a Peruvian audience in mind, as was the case with Khadak which was made with the Mongolian audience in mind.
Both history and non-western cultures remind us again and again that rationality cannot be the dominant approach to life and reality. They warn us that this ongoing process of demystification may lead us astray. ALTIPLANO (as well as Khadak) encourages self-criticism and offers the possibility of rediscovering values and attitudes towards life that were buried long ago in European spiritual patrimony. And we are, indeed, engaged in what could be called 'spiritual' cinema. Formulas dictate so much of storytelling on film these days, as does this ongoing obsession with 'story'. A spiritual cinema, free of market pressures, reminds the viewer of the healing power of wonder; it suggests the need for synthesis over analysis; it honours the complexity of our world; it evokes the sacred; it invites us to be humble and grateful; it respects the mystery of our existence.
And mystery, we believe, is precisely what is lacking in today's cinema.
