Discoveries from Bolivia World Cinema

After six months of dating, Malena and Manuel decide it's time to move to the next level and create a Cousins Club where members will learn about sex.

In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy (now calling himself James Blackthorn) pines for one last sight of home, an adventure that aligns him with a young robber and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike.

Following his son Gabriel’s death, Jorge travels from conservative Bolivia to New York City to confront Gabriel’s boyfriend Sebastian. While the two battle over Jorge’s inability to accept his son, Sebastian channels his grief into a bold new play in honor of his lost love, in which Gabriel’s inner turmoil is transformed into an eye-popping gay fantasia.

Based in the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Olalla" tells the story of a gothic and decadent family of genetic vampires who need human blood to survive, and where incest is the only way to maintain the family line.

Gregório is a rustic and idealistic peasant who lives frustrated in the village of Rosillas. Arrogant and bold, he wants to recover the waters of the family's old dam, which were diverted by Colonel Igrejas, an Argentinean farmer who acts in collusion with the town's mayor to benefit the cultivation of his own vines. In the midst of all this, Gregório will have to face the contempt of the residents, the corruption and the socioeconomic power of the elite, leaving aside the love for his little son Olegário, the care for his elderly parents and the love of Paula, the teacher at the school who insists that he go live in the city. How does the one who stays on the land that everyone has decided to leave survives.

In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.

Clara is a teenager growing up in a small indigenous community high in the Andes. Her adoptive mother, a midwife who took her in as a baby, has taught her the ancient songs used to guide women through childbirth, melodies passed down for generations, believed to bring new life safely into the world. But while her voice carries on this tradition, her dreams lie elsewhere: she longs to leave the mountains behind and become a folkloric music star in the big city.

An introvert city teenager is sent to his father's limber ranch. While trying to figure out his place as the son of the boss he finds himself in a world packed with naturalized violence.

The story of the friendship between a truck driver and a shoeshine boy who occasionally becomes his assistant when they travel together from the agro-industrial area of Santa Cruz to the high Andean basin of La Paz in a truck named "Mi Socio".

After being denied an American visa, a Bolivian professor becomes involved in a web of criminal activities, holds-up the American consulate and falls for a beautiful prostitute from the Bolivian lowlands.

'The Devil's Miner' tells the story of 14-year-old Basilio who worships the devil for protection while working in a Bolivian silver mine to support his family.

A handsome and mysterious stranger, played by Darío Grandinetti, walks into the town square of Villaserena one day and strategically places loudspeakers around the town, blaring a variety of musical tunes. Soon, he begins to sell airtime to the various locals, who broadcast their own personal love dedications and (more frequently) insults for all to hear. A subplot evolves between Abelardo (the stranger), Celeste (a young woman who is chained inside her father's house to stop her running away), and José (a young man).

The film tells the story of a girl who arrives in the city with her young son and must take care of an old house where an elf lives. One day the child disappears mysteriously, which will motivate his mother to do the impossible to recover it.

Sistu and her small community in the Andes discover the magic of cinema. This meeting causes a stir but also confronts them with their culture and highlights the limitations of the community to understand and read Spanish. As a solution, they choose Sistu so that every week he goes to town to see a movie and tells it to everyone in the square.

In A Song for You – a road movie and a music industry insider comedy, with lots of songs – young Ngawang leaves behind a nomadic existence on the Tibetan plateau for big city Lhasa nightclubs. His dream is to record an album and be heard around the country. Cutting an album costs money, which he doesn’t have. One day he meets a woman who looks just like his Loyiter, a talisman of the goddess of art and music. Impossible, says his father, as only the pure of heart meet her, only in their dreams. But, Ngawang perseveres. She takes him on a journey of discovery through life and love.

In the darkness of the Mamoré River, a boat moves silently through the Bolivian rainforest. Three lights cut across the water as loudspeakers break into the natural soundscape. With no human audience – only trees, animals and machines – a voice recites The System by Eduardo Galeano. Stripped of gesture and presence, the spoken word becomes an act of clandestine resistance: a sonic protest staged in uninhabited space, where nature bears witness and language confronts power from the shadows.

Two saint makers are ordered by a gangster to construct a Virgin and deliver it to a town in the jungle. Accompanied by their friend, a gambler, they proceed to have misadventures which test their respective faiths in God and gambling.

Lhamo and Skalbe fail to get married when they find out that Skalbe has already registered a marriage. Memories rush back as Skalbe embarks on a journey in search for his so-called ex-wife Cuoyehe, only to discover that the girl had renunciated her secular life when she broke their marriage promise four years ago. As a result, Cuoyehe's religious identity causes great difficulty in Skalbe's attempt at a divorce. On the other hand, Lhamo becomes aloof.

During a carnival, near the border between Argentina and Bolivia, a young Malambo dancer prepares for the most important competition of his life. When his ex-felon father returns, he jeopardizes everything by dragging his son into the criminal world.

A schoolteacher in the small city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra has a passionate affair with his frigid wife's sister—despite the risk of having to confront not only his wife, but also his dubious father-in-law.

Maria Francisca, a wealthy young heiress and her friend Mariana De Castro, a young protestant widow, are accused of witchcraft and taken before the Inquisition of Lima, Peru .

For the Buddha, establishing a community of nuns was a radical experiment for its time. Over the centuries Buddhist religious life was available to women but the highest monastic qualifications were denied to them. The film traces the journey of an exceptional nun, Namdol Phuntsok, the first woman ever to be awarded the highest degree in Tibetan philosophy - the Geshema degree.

Amir and Amat are invited to a trip into the South American rain forest, but the pleasant visit to Bolivia quickly takes a bizarre turn as Amat starts having strange visions and loses his mind over the ghostly presence of a giant blood red ox. Amir must save his boyfriend from paranoia but he will quickly realize he can't trust nothing and nobody - as he might be losing his mind too.

In this artistic rendering of De Sade's classic novel, Justine endures extreme torture and violation at the hands of the Marquis De Sade's disciples of pain in a number of perverse practices illustrating that virtue is no match for vice.

A micro-budget, independent road movie about two brothers racing across Bolivia towards the border with Chile during a national crisis in 2003.

Caught in a spiral of routine and unresolved tensions, young spouses Amanda and Sebastián face a crucial point after a heated argument. Over the course of a day of introspective journeys and memories, mysterious encounters from different timelines challenge them to confront their past and future, urging them to make one last effort to save their relationship.

José, a Bolivian retired general, is lying on his deathbed after a heart attack. Tormented by memories of his involvement in Operation Condor and invaded by deep remorse, he decides to tell his only son his biggest secrets in search of redemption.

A two and half month journey from Buenos Aires (Argentina) to Medellin (Colombia), through some of the most amazing places in South America, immersed in the Backpacker's culture.

A young German/Bolivian Mennonite risks his life to escape his strict religious community to find love and freedom in the city.

This is the history of a young farmer of the Bolivian plateau that becomes the first indigenous president of Bolivia. His childhood consists of shepherding ewes in the small school located in Orinoca where he befriends Reneco and Jamie, as well as his first love Wilma. All of them partake in different stages of each others lives. At the young age of 17 he is transferred to Oruro mining city in the heat of the Bolivian plateau. In order to survive he will have to work as a brick maker, baker, and trompetista in the Imperial band. The poverty and continuous droughts in the Moral field force the family Ayma to migrate towards the cochabambino tropic. In the tropical Chapare, Evo will become the biggest coca grower, soon to be delegated and win in the elections for president in 2005 with 54% votes. Evo Pueblo depicts the reality of our country, accounting for the common man that inhabits Bolivia through his fights, joys, poverty, exclusion and marginamiento.

A community reacts against a group of foreigners who under the guise of development assistance are forcibly sterilizing the peasant women.

Zinga, a gypsy woman, is sentenced to death by guillotine for her crimes, claiming to be innocent. She's given a choice, to lose her head by the blade or to be given over to the wealthy, incarcerated Marquis de la Croix. Zynga chooses the Marquis. Now the Marquis has the girl's life in his hands and can do with her whatever he pleases. But what pleases him will make Zinga wish she had chosen the quick death of the guillotine.

A witness testimonial by the Syrian people with regards to what has happened to their country. It's a story told by those who couldn't leave, those who chose to stay to fight the war and those who had to leave their motherland.

A symphony of the city in the heights, the illness of a worker, the nightmare and his redemption.

How are biographies charted? How is identity constructed? Can we relive our past, reinvent it, rearrange or recycle it? Can we really know who we are if we ignore where do we come from?

After several years a student returns to his native village only to find that despite the agrarian reform act of 1952, nothing has changed in the treatment of peasants, and racial discrimination continues.

Martín is a 13-year-old orphan shoeshine boy from La Paz, Bolivia, who has lived his entire life in the streets with the hope and desire to find his father. Driven by this desire and his imagination, Martin bonds with one of his best clients: Mr. Novoa, a lonely tailor whose only emotional bond is his dog, Astor, a fine German shepherd whom he cares for like a son.

Paloma and Amaru have an almost perfect relationship – until Søren appears and turns everything upside down.

Racial, social and cultural aspects of La Paz (called Chuquiago by the Aymaras) seen through four stories.

The journey back home has been a recurring narrative ever since humans started to tell stories. Because going back to one’s origins is always related to identity, a dilemma that never ceases to hit close to home

End of the 20's. Alfonso a young writer brought up in France, arrives to an adventurous mining town (Uyuni) in the midst of the Bolivian high plateau. Here he meets the beautiful Claudina a sensual, strong willed chola, la "Misqui simi" ("The one with the sweet lips"). Uyuni radiates a strange magnetism, it is charged with a collective euphoria produced by the bewitching mineral. The lives of the characters enter a whirl of passion, ambition and frustration.

In an isolated community, a young indigenous woman fights for her freedom after enduring sexual assaults. Confronted with a life-altering decision, she stands at a crossroads between resisting or forging a path away from the shackles of violence.

Elder Mamaní’s father has died, and it looks as if young Elder couldn’t care less, even though he has no one to take care of him now. He goes to live with his grandmother in the outskirts of the mining city, Huanuni, where Francisco, his godfather, gives him a job at the mine. But it doesn’t take long for Elder, who cares more about getting high and wandering through dangerous alleys at night, to mess it up. But he soon finds out about a dark secret regarding Francisco’s involvement in his father’s death…

The story of a poor girl who leaves her starving family and sheep for a more prosperous village. Her grandfather finds her and tries to convince her to return to her home.

In December of 2002, McDonald's had to shut down their restaurants in Bolivia. The company cited financial problems, but the real reasons were to be found elsewhere. Bolivia may be a small, poor nation on the global market, but a country's fierce local food culture can be sometimes a more powerful factor than economic clout. In his first feature-length documentary, Fernando Martinez shows what happened, a story driven by the characters behind the events and their life stories, such as renowned cooks and a review of popular sayings about the Bolivian food. The symbolism is obvious when a multinational giant is 'brought to its knees' by a country's traditions and heritage.

In a remote Peruvian city, lives Honorata Vilca, an illiterate woman of Quechua descent who sells candies more than 20 years ago, with the rain will cry to the sky itself.

It’s the rainy season in the Tibetan highlands. It’s good for the crops, but bad for Wangdrak. He’s the only boy in his village who doesn’t own a pair of rain boots – and the other children tease him about it. His father has no money to buy any boots, plus he has other worries: there’s a dispute among the farmers. Secretly, his mother swaps a goat skin for a new pair of light blue boots. But when Wangdrak proudly wears them to school the next day, the children laugh at him again because it has stopped raining and the sun is shining. At least Wangdrak can count on his best friend Lhamo. Set in the vast mountains of Tibet this film affectionately portrays the story of a young boy’s dreams which are bound by the traditional structures of rural life.

Through the reconstruction of crucial historical moments in the long struggle of the Bolivian Indians in search of the recovery of lost sovereignty, due to the Spanish colonization and the oppression of their descendants the republican Creoles, is rescued from official oblivion several indigenous heroes who shone with their own light in that extraordinary feat that culminates with the rise of an Indian to the Presidency of Bolivia.

1538. In the Inca empire a strange visitor has arrived. The messenger Sisco will give the news.

Composed of 28 static-camera scenes from everyday (occupied)-Tibetan life, each picture (without narration) a "narrative" lasting several minutes, these 28 views explore the contradictions between the traditional way of life and modernism's obvious invasion of Tibet.

A filmmaker and a Guarani Indian travel from La Paz to Bolivia’s swamps, exploring Guarani culture, ancient knowledge, and identity.

Dolkar is a 26-year-old living in exile in Delhi. An unexpected encounter with a figure from her past sets off a flurry of memories she had long repressed regarding the journey that brought her here.

Thinley and Nyima are Tibetans in exile in India. Barely able to make a living, they are now expecting a child. Is there still hope despite all these challenges?

An ex-convict returns home in search of a new life and a chance to reconnect with his estranged young daughter, only to be met with resistance from his father-in-law - an influential pastor in the Evangelical community in town.

Compilation of 18 animated short films made by Spanish-speaking artists from around the world for the Filmoteca Maldita Short Film Festival. This collection contains very diverse works, both in technical and thematic aspects, although they all share a genuine spirit of dedication and creativity.

This is a look into the world of Guarani art that recreates the story of Kuriyuki and the return of bones to that sacred place.