Even the Rain (2011)

I did not expect this film to be the way that it is. I expected the film to be about only water and potentially a water crisis. I never expected that Christopher Columbus would be involved. I did enjoy the fact that they placed in parallels between the film about Christopher Columbus and the Bolivian Water Crisis. Overall, I really enjoyed the film. I found it strange that there was no clear "bad guy" in the movie. In most American films, there is a good guy and a bad guy. Mostly the good guy wins. In this film, everyone seemed to be both good and bad. The native people were fighting for their water, but they also attacked people before they were attacked. The water company that was coming in was helping the people to get water, but it also charged a great deal of money to the people. The government had to outsource the water, making the people angry, but if the government hadn't done so, the people would have no water at all. Also, just like Christopher Columbus came into America and exerted his power over the natives, so do others. The water company from America and Britain comes in and places a large price on all of the water, making it almost impossible to buy. Also, the production team working on the movie comes in and imposes themselves on the people. They pay them only two dollars a day while the rest of the crew lives in a highly expensive hotel. In the beginning of the film, it seemed like Costa cared more about the film and about the money then Sebastian, who seemed to care about the people more. But as the film continues, Sebastian becomes more focused on the film. And Costa risks his life to save Belen, a girl who was an extra on the set.

Even the Rain starts out with producers of a film hiring actors for cheap labor. It is interesting to see a movie made about a movie. Sebastian and Costa are the movie makers (possibly producers or directors). They have to find a way to make a movie that seems to be underfunded. They find a local of Bolivia, Danielle, who seems to do a great job. At the same time of acting, he leads a protest against a 400% tax raise just to get drinking water. It's crazy to see that the government thinks somehow the people are supposed to pay this increase overnight. I really liked how Sebastian and Costa changed as the film progressed. In the Beginning, Costa just likes the cheap actors and Sebastian is the one who wants to give all the actors a chance to audition. However, in the end, Costa comes to build a relationship with Danielle and even saves his daughters life. Sebastian became more concerned with finishing the movie and even tells Costa not to go help her. Also, I really enjoyed the scene when all the people involved in making the movie were at a nice restaurant and the waiter tells Costa what the word for water was in the native language (yuka); eventually, the film ends with Costa opening a present from Danielle. The present was yuka.

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it" - Albert Einstein In a film within a film, director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and producer Costa (Luis Tosar) are shooting in Cochabamba, Bolivia in the year 2000. The film they are working on proposes to depict Christopher Columbus' exploitation of the indigenous native population in his voyage to the Americas and the effort of two priests to stand up to the Catholic Church. Written by Paul Laverty, the regular screenwriter for British director Ken Loach, and dedicated to the late progressive historian Howard Zinn, Iciar Bollain's openly political drama Even the Rain takes on the past history of exploitation of native populations, showing a parallel to current history.The film developed through Laverty's desire to dramatize the life of Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar who becomes an anti-slavery activist in defiance of the church and his native Spain. Shot in the high Andes because of budgetary constraints, Even the Rain attempts to conflate three levels of exploitation: the historical treatment of the Native Americans by the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century, the actual attempt by Bolivia to cede control of the country's water supply to a British-American corporation, and the filmmakers' cost-cutting that results in the Quechua population being paid only $2.00 an hour as extras.Opening with a "La Dolce Vita" shot of a wooden crucifix being transported to the mountains by helicopter, the film moves to an open casting call in Cochabamba as hundreds of Bolivians line up to audition for a role in the projected film. Turned away by the producer when the quota of locals is filled, Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), a vocal political activist demands that the Bolivians be hired even after they are told to leave. As a result of his strong personality, he is selected to play the role of Hatuey, the first Indian to be crucified for resisting the Spanish and Christian empire.A problem arises, however, when Daniel becomes the leader of a local group protesting the social injustice entailed in Bolivia's privatization of its own water supply (a true event that forbade the native population from collecting their own rainwater). Even after Daniel tells him "You don't understand, water is life," Costa demands that the young actor give up his political campaign to concentrate on the film which needs him desperately. As the director, Sebastian likewise must walk a thin line between balancing his ideals with his powerful desire to present a revisionist history of Columbus to the world. "The protests will be forgotten, but the film will last forever," he argues.Tosar is outstanding as the arrogant producer who is drawn unwillingly into the political protest. Overheard on a phone call, Costa brusquely tells a foreign investor how he is putting one over on the locals, not realizing that Daniel, standing only a few feet away from him speaks English. Eventually, however, Costa is forced to choose between the success of the film and the demands of his conscience staring at him relentlessly.Even the Rain tells us that understanding the past is meaningless unless that knowledge can be made relevant to the present day, a lesson that the characters must learn the hard way. In lesser hands, the film could easily have become didactic or preachy, but Bollain maintains a steady hand and the result is an engaging and powerful film that not only speaks out loudly against injustice, but does so with poetry and passion.

I do like Ken Loach's film, being a regular leftie, but they are sometimes a bit 'worthy' and downbeat. This film is right on the money, showing a believable crew making a low budget movie with anti-imperialist intentions showing how Columbus was nothing more than a vicious exploiting thug. I particularly like the way the cast, director and producer are getting on with the job of making a product within a budget and the stress the producer endures when his actors get precious or even more, when his indigenous not so stupid extras get stroppy too. Of course its neo imperialism that raises its ugly head to show that the sins of the past are very much in evidence today as the 'natives' are still fighting for their land and their water against the crushing power of multi national 'free market' companies seeking to expropriate their natural resources with the help of corrupt local politicians. This movie just grew and grew on me as I was aware that it could end in a very bad way. Did it? Well worth the wait. A gripping and visceral piece of drama.