Even the Rain

Even the Rain or También la Lluvia is a Spanish film directed by Icíar Bollaín. It takes place in the year 2000 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Director Sebastián and manager Costa arrive in Bolivia with a film crew to shoot a movie about Christopher Columbus’ colonialism in the Americas. They decide to film in Bolivia for the cheap labor – paying the extras just $2 a day – and goods, despite the extras and indigenous actors being inaccurate for the film with the indigenous people of Bolivia being Quechua and the indigenous people of the Caribbean being Taíno.

Eventually, the protests and riots become too much to continue filming, with Daniel constantly getting arrested or beaten and the city in shambles. The actors decide that they must leave, though Sebastián refuses. We see Costa’s character develop into being more sympathetic for the indigenous people, having spent time with Daniel and his daughter, who is also cast in Sebastián’s film. When the crew and Sebastián and Costa are getting ready to leave Cochabamba to a safer location to finish filming, Daniel’s wife informs Costa that their daughter, Belén, is severely injured and must be transported to the hospital from a post office housing injured rioters and protestors. Costa stays with Daniel’s wife and helps transport Belén to the hospital while the rest of the crew leaves Cochabamba. After Belén survives, the riots have ended, and the government agrees to break their contract with the water privatization company, Daniel and Costa meet at the old film studio in Cochabamba to exchange their last few words of friendship before going their separate ways, with Daniel giving Costa a small flask of yaku or water in Quechua.

This film, while fictional, intersects many ethical battles going on in the world: indigenous rights, indigenous exploitation, colonialism/imperialism, white privilege, discrimination and money in the film industry, and moral issues with the rise of Christianity in the Americas, along with water rights and water privatization.

The strengths of this film are also its partially its weaknesses. The film is essentially a film within a film within a film. The overall plot is that Sebastián is in Bolivia to film his movie. María, another character, is there to film a behind the scenes documentary of Sebastián’s film but realizes that there is a bigger problem going on in Bolivia and wants to make the movie specifically about that. The overarching theme of the film is about the water crisis, but the film also touches on so many other moral issues that plague the world. By doing this, Bollaín is creating a multi-level, multi-faceted film that uniquely touches on all these issues. However, is this counterintuitive to the overarching theme? Is the audience left contemplating the water crisis or all the other issues discussed in the film?

I felt the complexity was an interesting aspect, but how the audience perceives this complexity and what they take from is entirely dependent on them. After watching the film for the first time, I did some research on the water crisis in Bolivia. But after watching it for a second time, I began thinking about the other issues that the film exposes. In this way, it was effective in informing me about the issues that have been faced in Bolivia and are currently being faced by many nations and peoples around the world. The film is fictional and was a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83^rd Academy Awards, making it appealing to many audiences.