Discoveries from Peru World Cinema

In an Andean village in Peru, in 1982, Tato, a 12-year-old boy is forced into exile when his family is threatened.

Two dancers. They merge. With themselves. Each with the other. And with what surrounds them. Or at least that seems to happen at several moments.

Film by José Gabriel Huertas.

A newly arrived immigrant from the countryside to the Urubamba district (José Luis) has until the end of the day to get 500 soles to pay off loan sharks who have threatened him. Without contacts or help, he wanders the streets looking for temporary jobs, trapped in a recurring cycle.

With his 20th birthday just around the corner and the constant fear of not knowing which direction to take in his life, Lau will reflect with his friends on the cloudy streets of Lima City while figuring out what he will do.

A young artist is abandoned by his lover, who leaves her mattress as the only trace of her life with him. The mattress becomes an obsession.

Miguel, following years of struggle with bullying, is forced onto a crossroads with himself when the arrival of a new student brings his turmoil to light.

A bad decision and an old score to settle brings three men together in a barbershop.

Upon his release from a long and unjust imprisonment, Dr. Carlos Espejo rediscovers sensations he had long forgotten. During the journey he undertakes in search of his son, he re-experiences the freedom and fatigue of long walks, the benefits of the absorbing waters of a lake, the touch of the sun on his skin and the cold of these Andean regions.

Short film.

On a night steeped in fear and violence, Helena decides to take revenge on her mother, Magdalena. As the house becomes a labyrinth of memories, they are trapped in an intimate ritual where faith, silence, and guilt clash. What happens in that house not only challenges the bonds of blood, but also the boundaries between belief and denial.

In the shadow of the Mountain, 72-year-old Epifanio finds himself in the twilight of his life as he slips into a deep slumber, revisiting the day he became forever lost. He embarks on a quest to reunite with his family, guided by a mysterious woman who shows him the way back home. However, upon his return, he is confronted with a daunting sight: the Mountain roaring like a sleeping beast that has awakened once again.

Short film.

From the music of Peruvian composer Pauchi Sasaki, Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir crafts a story of a spectral mother’s disembodied voice suffusing the atmosphere with tenderness, but never quite reaching the shore of her drifting daughter. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

Natalia is in love with Jimena, her best friend, but she doesn't know it.

Second part.

In a hidden spot in the outskirts of Lima, in a poverty-stricken district, is a school that the whims of fate decided should exist: the Pachacútec Cookery School. For more than 15 years the school has changed the lives of more than 400 men and women chefs, giving them a profession that has lifted them out of their destitution while filling their lives with dreams, thus forging a new generation of Peruvian cooks. This documentary follows the case of three young alumi from the school, who now enjoy success in different parts of the world. In San Francisco, what started as work experience earned Jhosmery the position of pastry chef in a reputed Peruvian restaurant. In Luxembourg, Gerson takes up the reins of a kitchen with modernist ambitions. And in Lima, Alan runs a successful ceviche business. All saw gastronomy as a chance to get ahead.

María Ramos, a young woman of peasant origin, arrives in the capital and finds work as a domestic servant. Her life is divided by the attraction she feels for two men: the young man in the house where she works, who soon seduces and deceives her, and the teacher who teaches her to read and write. She soon becomes a seamstress in the neighborhood and later a sought-after designer. Her love for the teacher becomes clear.

An intimate dialogue between mother and daughter in which past decisions, present fears, and expectations for the future are confronted. This conversation emerges from a process in which the director engages with her mother's testimony—received from afar on audio tapes—and contrasts it with her own questions through a journey through family archive footage.

After facing several years of hardships, Gabriela, the director and protagonist of this short documentary, is involuntarily relocated by her family to a rehabilitation center for three months. During this time, she encounters a series of prohibitions that result in complete isolation from society, surrounded by individuals grappling with severe mental health issues. Four years after her release, she embarks on an introspective journey to definitively close that chapter of her life. This poignant documentary immerses us in Gabriela's courageous odyssey, offering an intimate look at her struggle for self-reconciliation and familial understanding. Through powerful imagery and sincere testimonials, the short film invites the audience to contemplate human resilience and the pursuit of forgiveness.

The Peruvian Andes. Andean shepherdess Margarita finds Lautaro, a dying Chilean soldier who has fled from a battle. She takes him home and nurses him. When he finds this out, her father decides to hide him, putting his family at risk. His only condition is that the soldier must leave when he recovers. Over time and despite the linguistic differences, the shepherdess and the soldier establish an intimate relationship. When he is discovered, the Chilean is taken prisoner but his life is spared as the shepherdess is expecting his child.

To be able to appreciate how the sounds of the antaras of the chunchos of Luricocha have resisted in time until today.

Camila and Jhony are hosts of a kids show. Jhony is in love with Camila but Camila is in love with Tadeo the dinosaur character Jhony uses a suit.

A dog travels a world where the only objective is to consume. After a tragic event, he discovers the cannibal mechanism of the system that will force him to fight or escape to survive.

Documentary record of the Santuranticuy Fair in the city of Cusco

Short film.

Lucho and Jenny are expecting a baby, he is suddenly fired from his job and they are forced to live in his mother-in-law's house. Coexistence becomes impossible since his mother-in-law is tremendously annoying.

The life of peasant from Cuzco Peru who goes to Lima and becomes an attorney, then returns to Cuzco and see how his people is exploited and abused.

In a time of chaos and violence, Hansel and Gretel, two dangerous siamese brothers, escape prison. Hansel is already planning his next murder but Gretel, already sickened, confronts him.

Testimonial documentary from 1989 that portrays the harsh reality of hundreds of migrant girls and young women who must travel to the city in search of work as domestic workers

Famous bullfight with condor, Yawar Fiesta of our Peruvian Andes.

Short film.

Roberto must choose between desire and love when two women he is involved with celebrate their birthdays on the same night.

The scissor dance is a 16th-century magical-religious dance and ritual in which the dancers act as mediators between humans and deities. It originated in the Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Huancavelica regions and began to gain popularity in Lima in the 1980s, during the waves of migration from rural areas to the city.

Norman and Benjamin, two Peruvians, meet again in New York after not seeing each other for years. Circumstances will lead them to be locked in a house where new and old feelings will emerge. Will it be possible for them to become a couple this time, or will they have to run away again from the red thread of their destiny?

Cecilia Cartagena, an afroperuvian woman coast, presents with her testimony a story of injustice and suffering that passes through several generations. It is, however, marked by hope and struggle to achieve a better world.

In Lima of 2020, during the global COVID-19 pandemic, a young adult struggles with the decision to whether or not to hospitalize his sick mother before it is too late.

The story of the Force of the Kitty's Kingdom.

Anthony Vergara, Renato Renzo, Gerson del Carpio, and Ernesto Pimentel are four gay men who defy a Lima society that is still very macho, conservative, and religious, wearing high heels, shiny dresses, and well-styled wigs.

It constitutes the first animated feature film made for Peruvian television.

A young and strange beggar wanders aimlessly through downtown Lima as if he were looking for something he doesn't even know what it is.

Short film by Armando Robles Godoy.

Damian is trapped in a disturbing building after a mistake with his registration and faces consequences he does not understand.

Disrupt, reject, destroy, avoid: At the interrupted rhythm of the broken photographs that a granddaughter has rescued from her grandfather’s hands, the last piece reconstructs the memory of an older man who has decided to leave behind his life impulses to surrender to sleep and calm. An essay on the act of joining our memories, the illusion of remembering and the freedom to forget.

Mila got diagnosed with tongue cancer. Instead of operation and chemotherapy she decides to try an unconventional treatment in the Amazon jungle of Peru and to make a film about her healing process.

César, a 15-year-old boy abandoned by his parents and ostracized by his family, arrives in the city but has no one but Mayra, his only friend. His past holds a great secret, and because of this, he is sought after by mysterious people who are trying to restart the so-called "Project Hope," which will also put Mayra's life at risk.

The camera is reflected in the rearview mirror of a car sliding down a dusty desert road on the Peruvian coast. This image symbolically captures the director behind the lens, observing a vast empty space that slips from the sides, trying to escape the center: the present, which simultaneously represents memory, which is at once here and yet always far from here.

Saul and Sara are two neighbors who decide to spend together the last four hours before the world comes to an end. In those last hours ironically, they will find the beginning of what could have been a great friendship.

This "sports journalistic documentary" presents the Tricycle Marathon, an event conceptualized by artist Luis Arias Vera and organized by the workers of La Crónica newspaper as part of the workers' day celebrations in 1976.

Maria earns her living fishing in a northern Peruvian village, working alongside her husband. But when her husband is called away to work on larger industrial fishing boat, Maria, who is pregnant, finds ways to act out her anger.

A meeting with Herbert Rodríguez, one of Peru's most committed artists.

Rita is a dreamy and curious teenager, she creates worlds and gets lost within them. A vibrant melody draws her attention, it's her vulva. This takes her on a journey of self-exploration into the female anatomy that will end in her first orgasm.

A little guinea pig trying to escape a cruel fate discovers that his salvation might lie behind a camera. Together with Mateo, a curious boy, he embarks on an unexpected journey shaped by Peruvian cinema.

Documentary that collects with a mixture of lightness and thunderous passages from the life and death of the Peruvian poet, who from a very young age was already the best version of himself and the promise of his generation. A kind of tribute through the testimonies of the people who loved him, contextualized with images of the political and social moment of the time, which contribute to the rescue of his memory and his poetic word, which was expressed hand in hand with his unfailing commitment to freedom. Javier Heraud, the guerrilla poet, was murdered in the Madre de Dios River in Puerto Maldonado in 1963. He was 21 years old.