Identity and Citizenship from the Post-truth in Peruvian Cinematographic Fiction

Abstract

Cinema has always been a mirror of reality, therefore it is important to reflect on the role of Peruvian cinematography in the construction of identity and citizenship. The identity reflected in stories that are capable of generating a sense of national belonging among their audiences and citizenship understood as the condition that recognizes the characters in fiction with social and political rights. Since the boom of Peruvian commercial cinema, starting with the film Asu Mare, dozens of Peruvian films have been released each year with great public acceptance. That is why the research aimed to know how are the representations that build models of identification and citizenship from the Peruvian commercial cinematographic fiction in box-office films. The research was carried out from the interpretive paradigm with a qualitative approach through a case study. A content analysis guide was applied to three films of the musical comedy genre that develop multiple stories and are aimed at a young adult audience, produced by Tondero Films (Peru), which were a box office success in the year of their release. The analysis categories from a narrative perspective were: characters, context and conflict. The main results of this research showed that the characters have hegemonic traits, they have no agency, no past and do not correspond to Peruvian identification models. The situations and conflicts draw a conservative society that maintains heteronormative values and excludes representations that reflect the diversity of the Peruvian context where the story unfolds. The post-truth of the author's cinematographic truth becomes evident by offering a narrative that does not question the public with a story that, without ceasing to be commercial, has an artistic proposal. The article contributes to the research line of communication and film studies and opens a debate on what Peruvian cinema is and what elements from the narrative are likely to be valued to consider a production as national.