A movie about rural people, filmed with them, in their communities, is rare, even more so when it touches on important topics like climate change.
In the Bolivian film Utama, directed by Santiaga Loayza, the main characters, Virgilio and Sisa are an elderly couple living on the Bolivian Altiplano, in a two-room adobe house. They still love each other, after many years together. Virgilio has never forgiven his son, for moving to the city, years ago. When the coupleÂŽs grandson, ClĂ©ver, comes to visit, the old man is angry. He feels that ClĂ©verâs father has sent him to take Virgilio and Sisa to the city.
The stunning photography shows the stark beauty of the hills and mountains rising from the high plains. The characters are believable and authentic. The title, Utama, means âour homeâ in the Aymara language.
The story takes place near the end of a long drought, exacerbated by climate change. Virgilio, Cléver and some of the neighbors hike to a mountain top to perform a ritual to bring the rain, which never comes. Some families leave for the city. Virgilio develops an agonizing cough, refuses to let Cléver take him to the hospital, and dies at home.
The elderly couple is played by JosĂ© Calcina and Luisa Quispe, who are married in real life, and are from the community where the movie was filmed, Santiago de Chuvica, in PotosĂ, Bolivia. They were cast because of their obvious affection for each other. This realism is accentuated when the couple speak to each other in Quechua, a native language of Bolivia.
Loayza had previously visited Santiago de Chuvica while making a documentary film. In reality, the village is an outpost for travelers visiting the famous Salar de Uyuni, a giant salt flat, an ancient lake bed surrounded by sparse vegetation.
This is one of the most remote parts of Bolivia, and one of the most marginal environments for agriculture in the world. Quinoa is the only crop that will grow here. Until the mid-twentieth century, local farmers made their living by packing out quinoa on the backs of llamas, to trade for food in other parts of Bolivia. It was an ingenious, and unusual cropping system, based on one crop and one animal.
But as the world gets hotter and dryer, places like Chuvica will only become more stressed.
Although not shown in the movie, some parts of Bolivia are far more favorable to farming, with spring-like weather much of the year, where many crops will grow. People are also leaving these areas for the city. Whole communities are emptying out. In the provincial valleys of Cochabamba it is common to see few homes except for ruined, empty farm houses. The grandparents who lived there may have died, but their heirs are still tilling the fields, commuting from town. Farming is often the most resilient part of rural life, and the last to be abandoned.
Climate change is a real problem, and will turn some people into environmental refugees. But villagers are also leaving more favorable farm country, pulled by the opportunities for jobs, education, health care and commerce in the cities. If rural-to-urban migration is seen as a problem, then country life needs to be made more comfortable, with roads, electricity, potable water, schools and clinics.
At the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Utama won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Competition. Â Hopefully other filmmakers will make more movies on climate change, and on rural life. There are lots more stories to tell.
Previous Agro-Insight blogs
Recovering from the quinoa boom
Videos on climate
Recording the weather, also available in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara
Forecasting the weather with an app, also available in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara
Additional reading
SagĂĄrnaga, Rafael 2022 Alejandro Loayza: Hay que hacer que el mundo escuche tus historias. Los Tiempos 13 Feb pp. 2-3.
El PaĂs 2022 âUtamaâ, la historia de amor frente al olvido en el Altiplano que sorprendiĂł en Sundance
