Between 2018 and 2019, Puno filmmaker Henry Vallejo Torres sold sandwiches at a mobile stand in the city of Puno.
At some point I was his client. Other times I was in charge of the business while he went to stock up on supplies. The future filmmaker, a graduate of the Universidad del Altiplano, found no other means of subsistence, to meet three bank loans. The loans were intended to finance the filming of the film Manco Cápac.
At that time, the film was 95% complete. There were five scenes left to finish the recordings with all the actors. That meant investment in logistics and other expenses required by the seventh. Subsequently, the editing costs would come.
Two years after these incidents, a great surprise, the film Manco Cápac is shortlisted for the Oscars.
Last Wednesday, December 1, was the avant premiere of the film in the city of Puno.
Vallejo Torres was accompanied by his brothers Flor, César, Carlos and José, fundamental pieces in the film project. Also in attendance were Juan Vallejo and Maritza Torres, the parents and supporters of their children’s projects.
One day after the film’s non-commercial premiere, Henry Vallejo recalls that uncertain stage of the shooting on the phone
“There was no money, he had three loans. Finishing the film was important to me. When you have loans and have no income, everything falls apart. (…). We were already going to court for the debts. Time was running out. There my mother took center stage and lent us money ”, said the filmmaker.
According to legend, Manco Cápac emerged from the waters of Titicaca, together with his partner Mama Ocllo, to found the Inca empire in Cusco. “The film was shot in honor of the Incas (and that myth),” reiterates Vallejo, who is also a tour guide.
The script summarizes the story of Elisbán, whose protagonist is Jesús Luque from Puno. He migrates to the city and suffers discrimination and social prejudice.
Is it worth investing so much in cinema? We asked him point-blank. “(…) Cinema is a passion for which one risks (…) When the art or film bug enters your head, it is like a disease, that you cannot get it out of your head and risk things,” he said. .
Dictated by reality
Henry Vallejo has lived his own film to take the film Manco Cápac. Becoming a fast food vendor is not easy, he confesses. In addition to business skills, you have to fight against social prejudice.
Coincidentally, it is the same message that he brings out in the movie. The actor Elisbán, despite the social indifference and vicissitudes, makes it clear that you do not have to give up or go back in life.
The Puno filmmaker reveals that Manco Cápac’s plot is a true story based on the life of one of his high school classmates who was punished and treated indifferently at school. “There is little empathy with the other person (the migrant) that we do not want to solve” and “art also serves to make people reflect,” he says.
“I learned that when you tell things you have experienced, it is more real. (…) It is easy to write a script with external conflict. The scriptwriters know. They start a story with one shot, they die and you already have the audience trapped. We have dispensed with things like that. (…) We show the little empathy that we don’t care to solve it. What does that mean? That education is not resolved in the country ”, he assures.
Henry Vallejo has already started writing his next script. He hopes not to resort to the sanguches again to make this new work .❖
The data
Filmmaker. Henry Vallejo is a graduate of Communication Sciences from the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, UNA. In 2005, he filled theaters and garnered the best reviews for his film Kharisiri. Together with his brothers Carlos, José and César they carry out their projects.
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