After a decade-long hiatus during which the existence of a home-grown cinema in Peru had been threatened by a lack of government and public support, a new generation of directors broke onto the scene in the twenty-first century with a distinctive approach to both the production and circulation of their films, as well as to their relationship with the ‘national’, in terms of policy, funding and audience engagement. This study takes one of those directors, Claudia Llosa, as the main case study, and considers the development of her profile as an internationally recognized Peruvian film-maker whose award-winning debut works (Madeinusa, 2006 and La Teta Asustada/Milk of Sorrow, 2009) sparked controversy and critical debate for their challenging portrayals of the Quechua culture of Peru. This article examines her successes on the international festival and commercial exhibition circuits, considers some of the scholarly and critical responses to her work, and asks what impact Llosa has had on the development of cinema in Peru through her engagement with the transnational
The Festival de Cine de Lima (Lima Film Festival) launched in 1997 and, from humble beginnings, each year now introduces around 300 films to diverse audiences across the Peruvian capital and beyond. In 2014, for the first time in its history, 4 of the 19 films selected for the feature competition were made by Peruvian directors, signalling a growing recognition of national talent by programming panels and critics that had tended to look beyond national borders for inspiration and challenge. Despite the relative paucity of coordinated film production activity in Peru, it is argued here that the flourishing of Lima Film Festival provides evidence of a deep sense of film appreciation that conveys a commitment to all forms of cinema. This essay reflects critically on the local, national and international impact of this Festival, its influence on the development of film policy in Peru and explores its role as a ‘key building block of film culture’ across a complex national framework
This article is part of a broader project on violence and identities in Peruvian fiction cinema, with specific reference to the interplay between the Shining Path conflict and national film policy.
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