- Heavy mist hangs over the towering Peruvian mountains as a young subsistence farmer, Feliciano, his wife Locrecia, and their small son Royer till their fertile land. Farming the fields above the Sacred Valley in southern Peru is all the indigenous people of Mullacas know - that and the taste of the local fermented corn beverage, chicha. Though theirs appears at first glance to be a peaceful life, isolation and lack of schooling have given rise to feelings of social inequality and an increase in alcoholism. So while he values the beauty of their surroundings, Feliciano wants his son, as his father wanted him, to move to the city so he can get an education and have a better life. Marking director Jason Burlage's feature debut, this moving documentary chronicles the young family's struggles through the planting season and Feliciano's more lucrative work as a porter along the Incan trails to Machu Picchu. These days, only a small percentage of indigenous Peruvians farm, as one in three members of the population now lives in Lima -sixty percent of whose residents occupy the slums. Yet among mountain communities, the belief that life is better in the city is widely held - and thus the traditions of "planting according to the stars," as their fathers and their fathers' fathers taught them, are slowly disappearing. The crucial practice known as ayni, for instance, or communal reciprocity in the form of such acts as plowing one another's fields, is being lost. Through such unsettling details, Burlage paints a vivid portrait of the complexities facing the future of rural communities throughout Peru.—Starz Denver Film Festival
- The film tells the story of a young indigenous Peruvian man who has lived most of his life in a small village in the mountains above the Sacred Valley. Like everyone in his community, he has been raised as a farmer. And like many, he has been instilled with the belief that life in the city would be better than the life he leads.
When Feliciano was young, his father would tell him, You are not going to be like me. You will go to the city, you will study, and you will become something more. When Feliciano was sixteen, his father sent him to the city, where he worked and studied. Shortly after leaving his village, Felicianos mother came to him to tell him his father was sick. Five days later, his father died. Being the eldest son, Feliciano was forced to leave his school and return to his village to work his fathers fields and care for his younger siblings.
Luck did not accompany me, and I lost my education. The loss has stuck with Feliciano as he has grown and made a life for himself in his village. Now he has a young son of his own, and his desire is the same as his fathers. He will see his son study in the city, and become something more than he has become.
Framed by the seasons, the film chronicles a year in the young mans life, from planting to the harvest, and through a season of work as a porter on the Inca Trail. We see the processes, passed from father to son for generations, of planting crops, tending to them, and harvesting. We witness the transformation of the spectacular landscape from the browns and yellows of the dry season to the vivid greens of the rainy season and the harvest. And we witness the back-breaking work of the porters as they make their way through the mountains on the trail to Machu Picchu. We learn of Felicianos driving desire, and witness a year in its pursuit.
Interwoven with Felicianos story is the complex history of his people. In his often poetic native language of Quechua, Feliciano recounts the history of the Incas, the conquest by the Spanish, and the years of the haciendas.
The film paints a vivid picture of this mans life, of the conflict between his love of the land and the work he has learned from his father, and the desire to see his son living what he sees as a better life in the city.
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