The Indigenous-language drama Yana-Wara has sold to Exit Media in Italy for producer and sales agent Quechua Films after screening at Spain’s Malaga Film Festival this week.
Quechua, which is based in both Madrid and Cusco in Peru, is now in talks for Germany, Japan and Uruguay.
Shot in the Aymara language, the film is the story of a girl suffering abuse in a remote village in the Andes.
Co-diected by Peruvian filmmakers Óscar Catacora and Tito Catacora, Catacora died early in the film’s production aged just 34. He had previously directed Wiñaypacha (Eternity), the first Peruvian film shot entirely in Aymara, a language native of the Andes, in 2017. The film won best first film and best cinematography at the Guadalajara film festival in Mexico and went on to be Peru’s Oscar entry film.
Catacora’s filmmaker uncle, Tito Catacora, who had directed the documentary Pakucha, was involved with the film from the start and carried on with shoot, a production by their company, Cine Aymara Studios.
Yana-Wara tells the story of an old man who is arrested and tried by the communal local authorities for the murder of his 13-year-old granddaughter. During the trial, the abuse suffered by the little girl surfaces.
For Catacora, Yana-Wara was a chance to explore “the duality in Andean culture: evil and good spirits, and to focus on the topic of violence against women as well as the respect for nature, so lacking in western culture”.
The filmmakers worked only with non-professional actors. “There are not professional actors who speak Aymara,” explains Catacora.
Yana-Wara made its European premiere at the Malaga Film Festival (March 1-10), as one of 19 titles in competition. The Spanish festival focuses on Spanish and LatAm productions and films mainly shot in Spanish but has welcomed a production that is part of the new wave of cinema made in the indigenous languages of Latin America.
“We love the chance Malaga has given us to share our culture with the rest of the world,” he added. “Digital technology has democratised the industry, lowering the cost of production. Now we have the chance of not just shooting in our own language, but the cultural and values that come with it. The point-of-view too.”
“Cultural diversity and an original take on gender violence as well as its stunning cinematography,” said Federico Sartori, CEO of Exit Media of what drew him to Yana-Wara “We were familiar with the previous work of Óscar Catacora and are very happy to have acquired the film.”
Quechua Films, a producing and sales outlet based in Madrid and Cusco in Peru is now in talks with buyes in Germany, Japan and Uruguay.
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