In Paula Rodríguez’s impressionistic documentary, an academic’s South American travelogue brings the painful story of a proud Indigenous society to life
Between 1862 and 1885, the Mapuche Indigenous people rose up to defend their homeland against invading outsiders. For these acts of bravery, they were deported, tortured and massacred at the hands of the Chilean and Argentinian military. These painful chapters of history, once suppressed and buried, are seen in a new light in Paula Rodríguez’s moving documentary. The film takes the form of a travelogue led by Margarita Canio Llanquinao, a Mapuche academic; after discovering the testimonials of Katrulaf, a Mapuche prisoner of war, in a Berlin archive, Llanquinao embarks on a journey that links the past to the present, the personal to the collective.
Retracing Katrulaf’s deportation route, Llanquinao crosses the Patagonian pampas and the Andes mountain range. Captured in impressionistic wide shots, the visual splendour of the landscape is on full display: vast, dusky deserts give way to lush forests. The sight of animals peacefully roaming free, however, sharply contrasts with the sombre voiceover, taken from Katrulaf’s written interviews. Separated from his own family and stripped of his valuables, he endured harrowing treatment inflicted by captors, including being tied up every night for more than six months. The juxtaposition of sound and image conjures the dark violence that lurks beneath the pastoral calm of the stunning vistas.
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In Paula Rodríguez’s impressionistic documentary, an academic’s South American travelogue brings the painful story of a proud Indigenous society to lifeBetween 1862 and 1885, the Mapuche Indigenous people rose up to d...
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