A unique and highly visual documentary that provides a detailed observation of the sacred Peruvian "Yawar Fiesta of the Apu Condor". The Fiesta takes place high in the Peruvian Andes in the tiny village of Cotabambas, an impoverished farming community where all the contradictions that characterize Peru's splintered culture and economy are thrown into relief. Five hundred years after the arrival of Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadores, the indigenous Andinos, descendants of the Incas still live under the feudal control of their Mestizo Landowners, the mixed blood descendants of the Spanish.
The themes of social stratification, ritual reversal and political relationships are an integral aspect of this film which culminates in a dramatic adaptation of the classic Spanish bullfight.
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Latin American Studies Association Film selection, 1994
NAFA 15th International Film Conference, Sweden, 1994
Gottingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, (IWF), Germany, 1994
Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, 1994