Direction: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Country: Bolivia / Uruguay / France
Utama, the first feature by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, takes us to the arid Bolivian highlands where an old couple of Quechua peasants - Virginio and Sisa (played by the affectionate real-life husband and wife, José Calcina and Luisa Quispe, who are non-professional actors) - receives their city-born grandson, Clever (Santos Choque), in their modest house. Virginio is ill and needs urgent medical care. However, despite his grandson’s pleas, he refuses to abandon his land and move to La Paz.
This enchanting arthouse viewing experience, mesmerizingly photographed by its writer-director, is just impressive in its narrative breadth, inviting us to meditate on death, roots, forced migration, environmental threats, and our own deserts. It also focuses on generational clash, which much contributes to the dramatic tension of the film.
Mobilizing all the power of cinema to service his narrative purpose, Grisi creates a simple film that fascinates by its romance, pastoral poetry, and the beauty of its hypnotic staging. This is accompanied by indigenous percussive music and acapella chants that can intensify the tension or appease the soul. Symbology is also present in the form of the sad crying of the llamas and the ominous flight of the condor.
This admirable aesthetic sense coupled with the cultural and climate change subjects makes Utama one of those films that, holding steadfast to its realism, sticks with you till the very end. After the final credits roll, we slowly recover from the gentle power, latent delicacy, and undiminished poignancy of this story with the thought that life must go on.
