Yana-Wara

Yana-Wara tells the story of the title character (Luz Diana Mamani), a thirteen-year-old girl who lives in the countryside with her grandfather, Don Evaristo (Cecilio Quispe) after her mother’s death. The communal justice system accuses Don Evaristo, 80 years old, of the murder Yana-Wara and during the hearing, everyone learns the tragic story of this young girl, who, because of gender violence, begins to have terrifying visions after being touched by the evil spirits that inhabit the forbidden places of the Andes.

Oscar and Tito Catacora's recent film is not afraid to tell its story explicitly, addressing issues such as the systematic abuse that women suffer at the hands of men in rural communities in southern Peru.

In an expressive black and white, with an almost abstract natural component, the film recounts injustices and social violence of any human reality but ends with a reflection on the relationship between the responsibility of the individual and the responsibility of the institutions.

The natural landscape takes on a wild and sometimes desolate appearance, if not threatening, which is reinforced by the composition of the frames, the position of the protagonists in them and the dramatic photography.

Yana-Wara is proof that cultures, no matter how diverse or unfamiliar, express universality, a point of intersection that puts them in dialogue with each other.