Hija de la laguna

In the tradition of the subdued Latin American narrative, this hypnotically slow documentary is based on sharp visual contrasts between evocative shots of a quiet landscape on the one hand and noisy mining and loud protests against it on the other hand. The perspective of the indigenous women is gradually supplemented with the view of a Dutch jeweller and the Bolivians who face the same fate as Nelida. The filmmaker does not try to make the stories of the social actors artificially more moving than they actually are. He uses the contrasting sounds of nature and machines in the soundtrack more often than music. Archival footage of violently suppressed demonstrations complements the present-day events, thus showing that the case has been dragging on for several years. The film also culminates in another clash with the police, when the two basic principles of the narrative (violence vs. non-violence, nature vs. civilisation, living in harmony with nature vs. exploiting it) collide. The documentary attempts to look into the conflict between long-term individual and short-term corporate interests not only from a personal perspective, but also from the broader perspective of industry, trade, ecology and ethics. Despite the appearance of objectivity, the people of the affected communities are given priority and unambiguously portrayed as victims. (15.04.2017)