“Many of us have a grandmother with Andean skirts,” says Joel Calero. In 'The Most Feared Skin', the protagonist returns after more than 20 years to sign a million-dollar contract for her maternal grandparents' house. Along the way she learns that she is the daughter of a man sentenced for joining the Shining Path.
The story is part of the political trilogy that began with the award-winning 'The Last Afternoon'. At that time, when Calero was reading the script with Lucho Cáceres, who played a former hiker in the 2016 film, the actor asked that his character apologize to the country if he would not act in the film.
“We fought (smiles). And I told him: 'Don't call him 'terruco', call him a criminal or a murderer.” For the director, that term has been one of the “worst burdens” left by the internal armed conflict. “It's that reductionist mental operation of 'terruqueo'. It's that sport that consists of disqualifying yourself. That word is mentioned by Fujimorism and is a childish way of simplifying. “Anyone who protests, they call us terrorists.”
The trilogy will close with Family Tree. “The biggest defects of this country are racism, landlessness and corruption,” he comments and adds that Peru wants to 'whiten itself', “and compulsively with a Rolex, since its president.” (This interview was done before the Ministry of Culture presented the new bases of incentives for films that follow “public order, morality and good customs.” The filmmaker expressed his opinion on social networks: “We need, first of all, produce good films and I don't think the way is to give points for meeting quotas”).
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In 'The most feared skin', Alejandra (Juana Burga) also reconciles with her roots, right?
Yes, his mother fled to Europe and his father is a forbidden topic. There were also conflicts in his family, with landowners exercising racism against his father's family. It has to do with discovering the Andean condition in a country that is not proud of its 'brownness'.
And you see two sides of Cusco, is it usually only the 'beautiful' that is shown?
Yes, we went through an entire town looking for the kitchen, the essential location, but we built it because the ones you find are tiny and very precarious. And something that catches my attention is how it is so natural to have domestic workers, that in Europe is unthinkable because you would have to be a millionaire to pay for it. In the film there is 'Mariano', someone who has dedicated his life to being a servant, that is something that exists right now. It is interesting that it is made visible and that it has to do with the reasons for subversion. María Luque's character paraphrases: “We are doing this so that there are no more pawns.” Of course, that purpose had erroneous, deadly procedures, but those injustices should not be normalized.
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Regarding the Tudela Law, Tatiana Astengo told us that this proposal responds to the “fear” of regional cinema, for example. Do you agree?
Yes, I think they fear and despise him. In the minds of Cavero and Tudela there must be a “oh, why do we want a hut to be shown, don't we want internationalization?” That is, they consider that they are not equal and that is why they should not aspire to show themselves. I myself am a mestizo-cholo who, while making films, have realized the difficulty of accessing certain strata that could help me, for example, to obtain sponsorships. For the Catacora it is more complex and from those conditions making the films they make is the force of nature. And the first days in theaters are important, but eight years of work and a film that has the elements to dialogue, is pulverized.
But you have colleagues who don't see it that way, they are not against Peru being just a 'film set'. Isn't it thinking of cinema as something commercial?
It is undoubtedly a mercantilist idea. The main function of the cinema we make is not to be an entertainment object of the laws of the market, no, not even remotely. For me, cinema is seeing something that resonates with me, that transforms me and that moves me. It is fine to tell those who want to attack cinema that for every dollar you invest a profit is generated, it is not wasted money, but its main function is culture. What will an Aymara who has lived as a marginalized person feel when suddenly her language is in movies? Oh my God! They should feel proud to see themselves recognized and represented. That is one of its functions
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