Italian
With an eye on indigenous communities and the women that dutifully anchor them, Bolivian multi-hyphenate Álvaro Olmos Torrico brings his introspective second feature, “The Condor Daughter” (“La hija cóndor”), to Montevideo for Ventana Sur’s Copia Final showcase, touting the fiction prodction at this year’s market, which runs Dec. 2-6.
Via Bolivia’s Empatia Cine (“The Visitor”), Olmos Torrico is producing budding Bolivian helmer Yashira Jordán’s 2021 Ventana Sur buzz title “Diamond,” (“Diamante”) alongside Buenos Aires-based Maravilla Cine, and has directed several documentaries leading up to his 2019 full-length debut feature “Wiñay,” all films that allow his protagonists’ self-reflection to spill into rich on-screen narratives.
“I find internal journeys very inspiring, they represent the perfect form of conflict for me. The sensitivity of my characters is my own,” Olmos Torrico told Variety. “I question the role of people in time and space, mainly female characters – almost always inspired by my mother. Internal journey’s end, in the best cases, in great evolution and, therefore, profound change. I’m interested in exploring those changes and that search for redemption.”
Popular on Variety Produced by Olmos Torrico at Empatia Cine with co-production credits to Cecilia Sueiro and Diego Sarmiento Pagan at Peru’s Ayara Producciones and Federico Moreira at Uruguay’s LaMayor Cine, “The Condor Daughter” follows a young Quechua midwife, Clara, who lives in a remote mountain village, her voice used to soothe those in labor.
The weight of increasing responsibility in the community, paired with inextinguishable adolescent curiosity, coaxes Clara to ponder life far from her indigenous roots and the family who’s shaped her, namely Ana, a stoic mother figure who’s taken Clara under her wing and wears the knowledge of three lifetimes in each wrinkle etched into her earth-worn visage.
Wide glimpses of the mountain ranges, shot with anamorphic lenses, display the vast landscape that dwarfs Clara, her peers, family and budding dreams. Enveloping the cast, it shows that their Andean home has a serene but forceful presence that holds dominion over the community, commanding respect and mirroring the women at the core of the script – the gravity of their position in the village. In contrast to those sweeping views, the camera often rests in snug confines that highlight Clara’s inner struggle to decide her future.
“In indigenous communities, the earth is a woman – Pachamama – the mother who provides for us and takes care of us,” Olmos Torrico relays. “Midwives are the messengers of the Pacha. For the Quechua, motherhood is closely linked to the earth, to time and to the agricultural cycle. I think it’s important to portray this relationship between women and the earth because it’s the core of Bolivian ancestral traditions that persist over time, despite adversity.”
Music binds the themes of the narrative, where ancestral curative hymns mingle with Quechua pop anthems, often played from the hand-me-down radio Clara’s gifted, to which she’s tethered. She uses it as a lifeline to the outside world and the same music will be the force that lures her away to the city to try her hand as a vocalist.
“I’m fascinated by ‘chicha’ music, it’s a timeless mix of modern and traditional. All the music in the film is from the ’80s and ’90s, yet the Quechua youth listen to it as if it were still in fashion today, because time runs differently in the middle of the mountains, it’s not guided by trends,” Olmos Torrico explains. “I was captivated by the role of music in the countryside and I liked the idea of portraying its importance and impact on youth. Chicha music (cumbia, folklore, electronic music, etc…) is an important symbol of identity for indigenous communities, they carry it with them everywhere.”
Clara’s absence sets off a maelstrom of devastation in the village and the elders send Ana to retrieve her. This dogged journey spawns further exodus from the land of steady tradition, something the director tackles vigorously as the plot meets at the fragile intersection between honoring heritage and forging a singular modern existence, a familiar existential conundrum.
“Traditional communities in the Andes have generated conditions of vindication and deepening of roots that’ve allowed their collective flourishing – through the connection with life, nature and the intelligence to adapt to generally adverse conditions. In this sense, the individual search, individual needs, have always existed, although many times the hopes of a community have been placed within them,” Sueiro relays. “This globalized world and the right to move freely allows people to travel, to know, to learn. It would be nice if we could return to our places of origin to apply what we’ve learned in a balanced way to the established customs.”
Six years in the making due to the team’s extensive research of Quechua midwife circles, the film proves a tender study of youth and the extraordinary weight of self-realization via sound, which stands as a form of rebellion, expression, a cure for maladies and a call home.
The project employed largely non-professional actors from the region alongside a technical team of pros from Bolivia, Uruguay and Peru. Iris Sigalit Ocampo Gil and Aniceto Arroyo executive produce the title.
