In the last 15 years, Peruvian cinema has gained worldwide recognition for portraying the harsh and tragic realities of Indigenous communities, who are still struggling with the wounds of the country’s 20-year armed conflict that ended in 2000. These armed conflict films develop are imbued with a complex audio-visual language that is likely to be embraced in the Global North but rejected by Peruvian audiences. Thus, these films do not assist in the generation of a national social consciousness generated, that would have a genuine impact on the lives of these marginalized communities. On top of this, Peruvian film makers in the name of an inauthentic interest of "helping" and "prevailing" these victims' rights and needs, are actually violating their human dignity by using them as commodities. This form of cinema applies a “film-circus” upon their tragedies, wherein Indigenous people are commercialised as "far away-curiosities" to Western spectators.
INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT IN PERU
Last year, my colleagues and I were happily surprised when one of our faculty teachers was nominated for an award at the Cannes 2019 Festival. Her film, titled “Song without a name”, tells the story of an Andean woman who looks for her disappeared new-born in during the Peruvian internal armed conflict. A year after the event, I was surprised to watch her film trailer at my local movie theatre. The sepulchral silence was suddenly interrupted by a man who deliberately shouted “Another sad terruco movie for white people'' (The term terruco is a peruvian slang word used to refer to terrorists). It reflected the sentiment that Peruvian cinema has been dehumanising Indigenous communities through sensationalised representations of their cultures for Western consumption.
Furthermore, the internal armed conflict refers to the brutal war between the Government of Peru and two terrorist organizations: Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. According to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission,[1] the conflict, which began in 1980, has been the bloodiest war in contemporary Peruvian history. It entailed massive and systematic violations to civilians human rights such as rape, brutal massacres, disappearances, and nearly 70,000 deaths committed by the terrorist organizations as well as government security forces. Although the violence was perpetuated all over the country, there was a marked difference between the urban and rural experience; inequalities which also reflect the drastic historical social division[2] within the national population, overwhelmingly affecting Indigenous communities.
Peruvian state leaders have not focused either their political agenda or the national budget, on making accurate reparation policies[3]that actually address this Indigenous marginalisation. As a result, to date these communities are still struggling with the wounds left by the internal armed conflict, in the context of this perpetual discrimination panorama. Thus, due in part to the lack of state measures, cinema [4]stands as a prospective mechanism for the defence of these communities rights.
EXPORT CINEMA
The Peruvian cinema industry has seemingly dedicated its trajectory to accumulating an exuberant amount of films around the topic of the internal armed conflict. From 1984 to 2019, there have been more than 80 movies produced around the topic. Amongst this filmography, certain drama movies depict decentralised narratives around Andean marginalised communities tragically affected by the violence. Although movies of this nature consistently receive international acclaim, they are not well received when projected nationally because of their complexity.[5] I have coined this cinematographic trend as “export cinema”. I have selected the term “export” as these films are specifically produced to be profitable in international markets. Due to the high appreciation and enthusiasm for these type of movies that attract Western cinema distributors, Peruvian filmmakers have felt increasingly motivated to embrace these export cinema narratives. This is a consequence of the impact of media and capitalism, which fosters the commercialisation of Indigenous cultures[6]. Therefore, the global north has placed a trend tag over the ethnic aesthetic, which encourages an increasing empathic movement towards marginalized Indigineous cultures, that appears to voice concern about their socio-cultural issues. It remains to be seen if such distance applause enough to generate a meaningful change.
Although Peruvian movies have been depicting the internal conflict since the early 1980s, most of the productions were based on an urban perspective of the conflict. Due to the fact that the majority of movie theaters are located in Lima,[7] mainstream producers tend to concentrate their efforts into conquering the urban public hand in hand with Lima-centred titles. There were a few exceptional cases where a few productions intended to canvass the rural point of view however these failed to garner national and international recognition.
Nevertheless, despite Peruvian society rebuffing the campesino culture[8] in the last 15 years the Peruvian film industry has found, alongside Export cinema, a niche based on the war-time stories of tragedy and difficulties faced by the Peruvian Indigenous communities.
Based on this statement, uncertainty emerges in the genuine aim behind these Indigenous film productions: On the one hand there exists the philanthropic purpose to make visible the collective memories of Indigenous communities and to foster their inclusion in society; while on the other hand lies the interest in taking advantage of their suffering, as film authors create a profitable show out of the tragedies and difficulties these communities are faced with. It's worth mentioning, even though it seems impossible to actually get to know the true intentions that move filmmakers actions; the means of production as well as the content involved allow me to elaborate on human rights related inferences.
CINEMA AND SYMBOLIC REPARATIONS
It is crucial to recognise whether these productions are an attempt to construct a meaningful way of symbolic reparations,[9] or if these movies represent a violation of human dignity as they dehumanise and humiliate rural cultures on the big screen by transforming them into commodities. Barrantes and Peña (2006) use the term reparations to describe those processes of transitional justice that attempt to compensate for the endured damage among those societies whose rights have been violated. In this case I will specifically focus on symbolic reparations[10], which refers to sensitisation acts via artistic interventions. These reparations further the fight against injustice by attempting to ward against atrocities repeating [11]themselves through recognising, preserving, and visualising the collective memories of victims and perpetrators, as well as ensuring the community's inclusion and participation in a pluralist society which allows them to experience confidence and relief instead of rejection and fear. [12]
The Export cinema tendency in Peru was raised by national film maker Claudia Llosa, whose interest in the representation of female Indigenous figures led to her international acclaimed film “The milk of sorrow”.[13] It tells the story of an Andean woman traumatized by her mother’s rape during the internal armed conflict. Even though it won several international awards and was also nominated by the Academy for best foreign picture in 2009, it did not receive attention in Peruvian theatres due to her unfamiliar and non-conventional aesthetic. Most export cinema projected in Peru tends to only survive a couple of weeks due to limited national public support.[14] Export cinema aesthetics seemingly do not appeal to Peruvian audiences, due to the frequent application of a more complex experimental audio-visual language.[15][16] Therefore, we can infer that export cinema filmmakers are not concerned with creating films that motivate a national dialogue and ensure the promotion of social consciousness around marginalised realities within the country. For instance, “The milk of sorrow” beyond superficially showing off the harsh reality of rural females during the internal armed conflict, was not able to motivate national reflection around the content.[17] Hence, films of this nature have no authentic transcendence as reparation mechanisms if they do not contribute to the reconciliation and growth of the depicted communities.
With this in mind, even though it's necessary to tell unknown collective experiences in order to build an empathetic global society aware of dissident realities, export cinema movies does not represent a truthful mechanism of symbolic reparation. Due to the fact that they are not genuinely interested in making a positive impact in Indigenous communities, but rather to use their portrayals asan instrument to captivate the international market. This reflects a superficial nature, as they idealise their lifestyle in contract to an urban western aesthetic, centring the attention on their “exotic” and “curious” appearance, while forgoing their human essence. Export cinema filmmakers, under a guise of sensitisation, perpetuate historical abuses as they instrumentalise communities' memories of pain.
“Claudia Llosa appropriates Andean culture in order to make movies that impress foreigners and ignorants. She doesn't care about our peruvian indigenous as human beings, just like curious characters and objects for mockery“ (Peruanista, 2009).
Therefore, this cinema represents a performance proper of a “Freak Show”[18], due to the “exotic” nature in which Indigenous communities are portrayed.
“Freak shows were extolled as educational and uplifting, starring "live" human exhibits.[19] Capitalizing on a new fascination with science and the inhabitants of foreign lands (...) claiming the performers came from distant lands, manufacturing strange life stories for each of them” (Bringham, 2007).
However, in contemporary cinema freak shows, the quirkiness of human exhibits are not just their outlandish condition, but their psychological and social issues too. These unfortunate conditions, grounded in violence and abuse, appear to appeal to mass audiences. Alongside this, there's also a pre- existent trace that excites viewers as they are seated in a privileged viewing[20]position, where they are amazed in the distance by the misfortune these communities have encountered. Viewers feel relief as they acknowledge these far away tragedies could not possibly exist in their own context. Accordingly, export cinema refers to a practice that violates Indigenous communities rights and their human dignity.[21] They are commodified in order to entertain a privileged society while remaining marginalised.
In order to build an authentic body of cinema work geared toward reconciliation and the promotion of the visibility of communities that lack accessibility to resources to be heard, not only is it critical to diversify the perspectives about the internal armed conflict, but to prioritise meaningful impact and transformation in the Peruvian population. It is crucial to mention that the future is not hopeless in this regard. Currently, there are a couple exceptional works that effectively represent symbolic reparations in cinema, due to their positive impact in the affected community depicted. For example, the documentary Lucanamarca (2009)[22] centres around the massacre committed against the Lucanamarca community during the internal war, and when it was shown directly in the territory of the community, elicited acts of forgiveness and reconciliation between the members. These types of features represent symbolic reparations, not only by healing wounds of the past, but by looking to generate social consciousness amongst the public. Movies should aim not only to reach foreign consciousness but also foster an audience that is willing to genuinely listen to diverse and marginalised voices. This may come from seeking formulas that value the artistic aspect of entertainment, but most importantly depict people as human beings within spaces of human connection. Only in this way, will there be an equitable national scene that, by looking at the past, moves towards a better future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2003) “CVR Final report “. Peru
[2] Ministry of Culture (2015) “Baseline of social gaps by ethnic origin in Peru”. Peru
[3] Terrorism Observatory Peru (2019) “The open wounds due to the armed conflict in Peru”. Lima
[4] Sanchez, R. (2012). Why cinema is not just entertainment. In: Cinema code. Lima.
[5] Castillo, R (2015) “Peruvian cinema and terrorism in 6 categories”. Perú
[6] Romo, V (2020) “Why peruvian cinema captivates abroad and which is the way to continue shining?” El Comercio. Perú.
[7] PERURETAIL (2019) ¿Which are the most visited movie theaters in Peru?. Lima
[8] Matos, M (1990 ) “Campesino Migrations and Urbanization process in Peru”. Lima.
[9] Barrantes, R., & Peña, J. (2006). “Narratives of the internal armed conflict in Peru. Memory in the political process after the TRC”. 16-40. Lima
[10] Patiño Yepes, A. (2010). Symbolic reparations in Transitional justice sceneries. Human Rights Latinoamerican Journal, 21(2), 51-62.
[11]Reátegui Carrillo, F. (2006) Democratic transformations and memories of violence in Peru. Lima.
[12]Varona Martínez, G. (2015). Right of memory in terorrism victims. Peru
[13] Llosa, C (director), Chavarrias, A y Morales, J (producers) (2009) The milk of sorrow. Perú
[14] Peralta, J (2017) Peruvian cinema: In the middle of growth and necessity In: RPP. Perú.
[15] Peruanista (2009) Blog: The breast of discord”. Washington. EEUU.
[16] Bedoya, R (2017) Perú imaginised Representations of a country in international films. Perú
[17] Arellano, J (2009) Peru: “The milk of sorrow” Controversy. Global Voices Org.
[18] Putova, B (2018) “Freak shows. Otherness of the human body as a form of public presentation”. Charles University. Prague
[19] Brigham A. (2007) Dangerous Bodies: Freak Shows, Expression, and Exploitation. UCLA Entertainment Law Review, Vol. 14, No. 207, 2007.
[20] Thomas, J (2010) “ Our own insecurities drive today's reality 'freak shows' From: The National. UAE
[21] Tascon, S (2012 ) “Considering Human Rights Films, Representation, and Ethics: Whose face?”. From: Human Rights Quarterly. USA.
[22] Idealterna Peru (2009) “Interview to Héctor Gálvez, documental "Lucanamarca codirector". Video. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd4U2ujiIto
Daniel is a peruvian filmmaker and writer, currently completing his Bachelor of Arts in Audiovisual Communication at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. He is passionate about marrying cinema with his main philosophical interest: the human condition. His film ethos focuses on the need for humanisation and he uses a multidisciplinary lens to develop as well as promote accurate representations in cinema that achieve meaningful change in society.