The movie, También la lluvia, is among the few masterpieces created by modern filmmakers, credible enough to take the audiences to a journey into time. The film presents narratives for two different but intertwined story lines. One narrates the challenges that the Spanish filmmaker Sebastián (played by Gael García Bernal), faces when he was in Cochabamba to produce his much passionate creation. The other dimension in the movie reveals about the struggle that the natives in Cochabamba have been going through in order to protect their right to water supplies and force a multinational water company out from the region through protests often turning violent (Cilento, 2012). While both these settings intertwined in the movie depicts hardcore reality of movie creation and foreign invasion into the social sphere of native tribes. Among the two, certainly the central narrative was the dilemma that Sebastián as the filmmaker and Daniel (played by Juan Carlos Aduviri) as the protagonist in the film as well as in the protests against water privatization had to face. This is what makes the creation both epic and a social cinema at the same time (Paszkiewicz, 2012).
I was strongly affected by the experiences of the Mexican crew filming in Bolivia, the surprising twists in the story of Daniel and the way these two aspects merged together, irrespective of being so different in their way of observation and maneuvering. While on one hand, the experiences of Sebastián and his Mexican film crew helped me understand the modern day complexities of understanding the socio-economic opportunities from a business perspective, the story portraying water privatization protests led by Daniel helped me to realize the political hazards of the modern world. Concerning the similarities in the effects that these two dimensions of the film had on me, I believe it was concerning the socio-economic and political dimensions of modern human civilization. With this contrasting structure though, I was also able to observe the differing levels of depth in the two dimensions, which was perhaps a key to enjoy a long lasting impression on the viewers that might have had faded in case presented in two distinct creations.
A central argument of the plot of the movie is that the picture of slavery and invasion has not much changed for the Taíno tribes, since Columbus’ conquest. By some extent, I do agree to this statement. As I could observe, the Taíno tribe is still being oppressed by the foreign invaders, which today comprise the multinational company aiming to privatize water in the land. It raises many questions concerning the well-being and the liberty of the tribal people, almost similarly as it did during the period of colonization, thereby raising threats of slavery amid the natives in the hands of the invaders.
Parallels were also apparent in the case of Sebastian and Costa to that observed in the historic context of Columbus and Las Casas. On a similar to note, sharing the vision of expanding their conquest, Sebastian and Costa also intends to create the movie intertwined strongly, until Costa faces the dilemma of pushing Daniel to withdraw from his leading role in the protests against water privatization that makes him to fall apart with Sebastian. In view of my learning through the previous units involving the Guatemala and situations in Guatemala, I believe that at the rudimental, equality is still lacking within the human society. While revolutionary steps have been taken to ensure equality and well-being of the minors in different parts of the world, it still seems that invaders find new and more sophisticated ways to oppress the weaker section to obtain profitability.
To an extent, I also feel that the Quechuans were being exploited in the filmmaking process, not only because they were being underpaid but also because Sebastian left no stones unturned to make Daniel prioritize his film over the greater interest of his tribe or even his daughter. Although a long time has passed, reliving a painful history can never provide a good feeling, which is clearly portrayed in the struggle and the dilemmas within the character of Juan Carlos Aduviri throughout the film.
- Cilento, F. (2012). Even the rain: A confluence of cinematic and historical temporalities. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 16(16), 245-258.
- Paszkiewicz, K. (2012). Del Cine Épico Al Cine Social: El Universo Metafílmico En También La Lluvia (2010) De Icíar Bollaín. Lectora: Revista De Dones I Textualitat, 2012, 18, P. 227-240.