New configurations for Peruvian cinema: The rising star of Claudia Llosa

Abstract

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

Claudia Llosa y La teta asustada: cine, conflicto(s) y culturas populares en Perú

“…1 Ha habido algunos análisis que se han ocupado de él con enfoques que van desde los estudios literarios, las perspectivas antropológicas y de género, hasta estudios sobre su lugar en la industria del cine peruano, entre otros, como se observa en los siguientes -que se utilizarán más adelante-: Cisneros (2015), Maseda (2014), Barrow (2013), Monette (2013), Lillo (2011) …”

“…Hay que considerar al respecto que Claudia Llosa pudo acceder a financiaciones europeas, sobre todo provenientes de España; esto sumado a la inmersión de la película en circuitos de cinéfilos e "iniciados", lo que favoreció su distribución y contribuyó a su relativo éxito en relación con la crítica y con el público en Perú y en otros países (Barrow, 2013y Cisneros, 2015.…”

European Co-production Funds and Latin American Cinema: Processes of Othering and Bourgeois Cinephilia in Claudia Llosa's La teta asustada

“…For instance, the Argentinean Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA) has co-produced films by Lucía Puenzo, and along with European funders has supported films by its best known young auteurs, Pablo Trapero, Israel Adrián Caetano and Lisandro Alonso. Claudia Llosa won some money from the (now defunct) Peruvian national fund Conacine for Madeinusa and La teta asustada following foreign support for the films (Barrow, 2013: 202). In the case of Mexico, the national film agency IMCINE often appears as one of the producers alongside funders such as Hubert Bals or the World Cinema Fund as seen in the case of one of the best known Mexican art directors, Carlos Reygadas.…”

“…As Maria Chiara D’Argenio (2013: 2) notes, Llosa’s films are more interested in addressing a global than a national audience, and have, as a result, offended many within Peruvian critical circles. Both Diana Palaversich (2013) and Sarah Barrow (2013) have summarised the controversies surrounding Llosa’s films. Palaversich (2013: 489) notes that Llosa has been accused of ‘perpetuating racist colonial stereotypes of primitive and perverted natives’, although she defends her from these judgements and produces a feminist reading of the director’s first film Madeinusa.…”

“…Palaversich (2013: 489) notes that Llosa has been accused of ‘perpetuating racist colonial stereotypes of primitive and perverted natives’, although she defends her from these judgements and produces a feminist reading of the director’s first film Madeinusa. Barrow (2013: 204) explains that Llosa ‘has come in for some quite vitriolic criticism – from those who have condemned her debut film as naïve at best and racist, sexist, Eurocentric, exoticist at worst’.…”