oscar jubis
05-03-2007, 08:40 PM
One of my favorite undistributed films of 2006 is now available on dvd (http://www.filmmovement.com/filmcatalog/index.asp?MerchandiseID=94).
MADEINUSA (Peru)
Salvador, a young man from the capital, becomes stranded in a mountain village in the Peruvian Andes during Holy Week. The culture there is a unique mixture of indigenous, tribal traditions and Christianity, and outsiders are not welcome. The residents believe that between Holy Friday and Easter, God is dead, thus people are not held accountable for their sins. Salvador meets the hard-drinking town mayor Don Cayo, and his teen daughters Madeinusa (pronounced Maden-nooza) and Chale. Their mother abandoned them and moved to Lima months ago, leaving behind only a pair of earrings that Madeinusa treasures like a fetish. It's friday night and Cayo makes sexual advances towards Madeinusa, who rebuffs him. She is clearly father's favorite and Chale burns with jealousy. The next day, the town prepares for elaborate Easter festivities, which include a procession where one girl is chosen for the privilege of representing the Virgin Mary. This day, it's Madeinusa who takes the initiative and seduces Salvador. Chale witnesses their coitus and tells Cayo, who locks up the outsider and burns Madeinusa's trinkets, including her prized earrings. The rural drama comes to a heady and surprising resolution on Easter.
It's hard to believe this is the first film written and directed by Claudia Llosa. It's so technically accomplished, so assured. It looks like the work of a veteran filmmaker, but most of the cast and crew are neophytes. It's very much a fable-like fictional tale, but the masterful use of mountain locations, the use of indigenous language, the attention to the minutiae of local folklore make it feel at times like an ethnographic documentary. Madeinusa dramatizes with unique power an isolated village's fight against outside influence. It conveys both the comforting and the subjugating aspects of tradition fairly and impartially. But most of all, Madeinusa is engaging and compelling drama. We can safely add the name of Claudia Llosa to the list of outstanding, emerging female filmmakers from South America, a list that includes Alicia Scherson from Chile and, from Argentina, Ines de Oliveira Cezar and Lucrecia Martel.
(Review posted originally as part of the coverage of the 2006 Miami International Film Festival)
MADEINUSA (Peru)
Salvador, a young man from the capital, becomes stranded in a mountain village in the Peruvian Andes during Holy Week. The culture there is a unique mixture of indigenous, tribal traditions and Christianity, and outsiders are not welcome. The residents believe that between Holy Friday and Easter, God is dead, thus people are not held accountable for their sins. Salvador meets the hard-drinking town mayor Don Cayo, and his teen daughters Madeinusa (pronounced Maden-nooza) and Chale. Their mother abandoned them and moved to Lima months ago, leaving behind only a pair of earrings that Madeinusa treasures like a fetish. It's friday night and Cayo makes sexual advances towards Madeinusa, who rebuffs him. She is clearly father's favorite and Chale burns with jealousy. The next day, the town prepares for elaborate Easter festivities, which include a procession where one girl is chosen for the privilege of representing the Virgin Mary. This day, it's Madeinusa who takes the initiative and seduces Salvador. Chale witnesses their coitus and tells Cayo, who locks up the outsider and burns Madeinusa's trinkets, including her prized earrings. The rural drama comes to a heady and surprising resolution on Easter.
It's hard to believe this is the first film written and directed by Claudia Llosa. It's so technically accomplished, so assured. It looks like the work of a veteran filmmaker, but most of the cast and crew are neophytes. It's very much a fable-like fictional tale, but the masterful use of mountain locations, the use of indigenous language, the attention to the minutiae of local folklore make it feel at times like an ethnographic documentary. Madeinusa dramatizes with unique power an isolated village's fight against outside influence. It conveys both the comforting and the subjugating aspects of tradition fairly and impartially. But most of all, Madeinusa is engaging and compelling drama. We can safely add the name of Claudia Llosa to the list of outstanding, emerging female filmmakers from South America, a list that includes Alicia Scherson from Chile and, from Argentina, Ines de Oliveira Cezar and Lucrecia Martel.
(Review posted originally as part of the coverage of the 2006 Miami International Film Festival)