Leaving everything behind for a 'better place' has paradoxical consequences
for a rural grandma that wants to stay, a son that moved to Europe many years ago
and a grandson that want's to leave the mountains for the big city
for a rural grandma that wants to stay, a son that moved to Europe many years ago
and a grandson that want's to leave the mountains for the big city
This documentary is my undergraduate film. A rather personal story about how I try to discover the hidden stories of my silent father’s childhood in Peru. My nephew, Mijael, who is being raised in the Andean mountains of Peru by the same woman as my father, his grandmother, also lives in the same house as my dad did when he was a child. And just like my father once made the big decision to leave the village, Mijael now too will leave to go to a high school in Tacna, a big city, hours away from the village. As a result, grandma Vicenta will once again face the difficult choice of either staying in the slowly more abandoned village or moving together with Mijael to a city in which she will be unhappy, but able to care for her grandson.
In the film, together with my father, I discuss the idea of the existence of something like a ‘better place’. Because when my dad was younger, it was clear; the farther, the better. Leaving is living. But many years later, he realizes that he is now split between two countries in which he does not fully belong in either. A thought that made him a rather silent man. pThe need to break up this silence and talk about the theme of ‘leaving’ is what sparked this movie into existence.
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Director: Willkamayu Oomen
Cast: Vicenta Isdro Ramoz
Mijael Uriel Osco Mamani
Ivan Osco Isidro
Adriana Uriel Osco Mamani
Director of photography: Willkamayu Oomen
Sound: Alejandra Rogghe Perez
Editor: Willkamayu Oomen
Revision editor: Katerina Indesteege
Colorgrading: Mon Dewulf
Academic mentor: Ellen Vermeulen