Yana-Wara, Peruvian film: “Historically, women have been relegated; Andean culture does not escape either”

You cannot see “Yana-Wara,” in theaters since April 4, without thinking about the unfairness of the filmmaker’s death. Oscar Catacora during filming. A fulminant peritonitis that was not treated in time took him away on November 21, 2021. It is not unreasonable to think that in a country with adequate infrastructure, with more and better hospitals and roads, he would have survived. Producer Tito Catacora, Oscar’s uncle, took over the direction and completed the film; thus, both share directing credit. With a somewhat different style, but with the same meticulousness in substance and form, Tito Catacora took up the story of Yana-Wara (Luz Diana Mamani), a girl who goes through one misfortune after another, and how her grandfather, from a complicated position, He does everything he can to help her.

First of all, this is a movie about evil spirits. “For us the Andean world is a dual world; If there are benign spirits then there are also evil spirits. That was our interest,” said Tito Catacora in an interview with El Comercio. But these spirits are not just a belief as someone who lives in Lima might think; in Puno, where the story is set, they are a reality. Hence this topic is treated with complete seriousness in the film. Demonic possession is as real to the characters as the violence of the storm.

But the film also deals with other themes. We asked the filmmaker if one of these is the indolence of the State towards its citizens; that in the narrative are abandoned to their fate. Tito Catacora does not mention that, but he does mention other topics such as traditional education, communal justice and, of course, machismo and gender violence. “Historically, women have been relegated, postponed in all cultures; Andean culture does not escape either. Through the work we present to generate debate,” said the filmmaker during his visit to Lima to promote the film.

“Yana-Wara” works in part because of the work of the teenager Luz Diana Mamani, who plays the victim of human beings and spirits. A producer of the film found her in the Puno town of Conduriri. Catacora says that, since it is filmed in the Aymara language, it is difficult to find professional actors who speak the language. Part of the work on the film consisted of finding people (many times they don’t show up for casting) and training them in acting techniques. Finding the protagonist was not easy. “The character was quite complicated because she herself suffers a lot on all levels. She is in a society where machismo prevails and also there she dabbles in the Christian religion itself and she still has to receive blows for different situations. What we have looked for is someone who could take those risks,” said Catacora, who details that Luz is an artist who knew how to understand the proposal.

The first thing the viewer notices when watching this film is the photography, very careful and which immediately differentiates it from the rest of the most recent productions of Peruvian cinema. When talking about this, the filmmaker highlighted the importance of innovating in cinematographic language, of renewing it to tell stories; In this he agrees with the work of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai (“Chungking Express”), of whom he is an admirer. Likewise, the film is filmed with a 50 millimeter lens, which offers the viewer the feeling of being present in the same space as the characters. Additional information for film buffs: Catacora makes his storyboards (sketches of the frames) the same day of filming; He gets up at 3 or 4 in the morning and draws.

Being filmed in an almost square format, like old television series, “Yana-Wara” conveys the feeling that its characters are trapped despite moving freely through their community. A sensation where the film connects with “Wiñaypacha”, the previous feature film, directed entirely by Óscar Catacora. A film full of meanings ready for the viewer to decipher.