También la Iluvia

Even the Rain

05 Dec 2012

Director: Iciar Bollain

Spain

2010

103 min

The exploitation of South American natives by Christopher Columbus is the starting point of this thoughtful and intelligent Spanish film-within-a-film-within-a-film. A film crew arrives in Bolivia to tell the story of the early Spanish colonists and their impact on the New World, only to find modern parallels when violent demonstrations threaten the film’s completion.

Locals (including their leading man) are enraged at corporate ownership of indigenous water rights. What could have been a simplistic ‘good vs. evil’ story develops far more interestingly though, as the film-makers are drawn into the conflict and have to consider their own part in the wider story of global exploitation of resources.