Even the Rain
Theatrical release poster
Spanish	También la lluvia
Directed by	Icíar Bollaín
Written by	Paul Laverty
Based on	2000 Cochabamba protests
Produced by	Juan Gordon Pilar Benito Eric Altmayer Monica Lozano Serrano Emma Lustres
Starring	Luis Tosar Gael García Bernal Juan Carlos Aduviri Karra Elejalde Raúl Arévalo
Cinematography	Alex Catalán
Edited by	Ángel Hernández Zoido
Music by	Alberto Iglesias
Production companies	Morena Films Alebrije Cine y Video Mandarin Cinema
Distributed by	Vitagraph Films
Release dates	September 16, 2010 (2010-09-16) (TIFF) January 5, 2011 (2011-01-05) (France and Spain)
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	Spain Mexico France
Languages	Spanish Quechua English
Box office	$5.8 million[1]

Even the Rain (Spanish: También la lluvia) is a 2010 drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín and written by Paul Laverty.^[2]

The plot concerns Mexican director Sebastián (played by Gael García Bernal), Spanish executive producer Costa (played by Luis Tosar), and their group of actors who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting the Spanish conquest of the New World. The members of the Spanish film crew unexpectedly find themselves in a moral crisis when they arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia, during the intensifying Cochabamba Water War, in which their key indigenous actor Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) gets increasingly involved.

Shot in Bolivia, it is an internationally co-produced film by companies from Spain, Mexico and France.

The film received nominations and awards internationally, including an Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film and three Goya Awards. It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar for the 83rd Academy Awards, making the January shortlist.

Plot

Mexican filmmaker Sebastián and his Spanish executive producer Costa arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia, accompanied by the cast and crew, to create a historical film depicting Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the imposition of Spanish authority over the natives, and the subsequent indigenous rebellion by Hatuey. Cognizant of his limited budget, Costa decides to film in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. Hundreds of Bolivian locals show up and wait in long lines in response to the open casting pamphlet. Costa is enthusiastic about saving thousands of dollars by having underpaid extras perform tasks on set meant to be done by experienced engineers.^[3]

Sebastián casts Daniel, a local man, in the role of Hatuey, the Taíno chief who led a rebellion against Columbus. Daniel's daughter Belén lands a crucial role as well. Their first encounter with Daniel is during the casting process. When casting directors start to turn people away in line, Daniel makes a scene and states that everyone should get a chance to audition, as the pamphlet advertised. This makes Costa oppose the hiring of Daniel, but Sebastian sees Daniel's fire and liveliness as perfect for the role. Sebastián is unaware that Daniel is leading demonstrations against the new government-protected water company during the water privatisation plan. Filming begins smoothly despite the alcoholism of Anton, the actor cast as Columbus, but when Costa observes Daniel's revolutionary involvement, he becomes increasingly uneasy about Sebastián's decision.^[4]

While filming, Costa starts speaking badly of the natives in English, not knowing that Daniel understands that language. Because of this, Daniel becomes more aware of how Costa and the rest of the crew are taking advantage of the natives. After seeing that Daniel understands that abuse, Costa becomes more cognizant of it himself and starts feeling guilty.

As the crew begins to wrap up the film, the exasperation of the natives intensifies. They begin to consider fighting for their rights to water by protesting in the streets. All these efforts are led by Daniel, who, despite being asked to lay low in exchange for a bigger pay, continues to protest. Costa reaches his breaking point with Daniel when he gets beaten by the police during the riots. He tries to bribe Daniel, offering him several thousand dollars to stay silent for a few weeks. Daniel accepts the money but uses it to fund the protesters and remain involved, eventually becoming imprisoned. Sebastián experiences moral conflict and begins to doubt the likelihood of the film's completion, but is reassured by Costa, who bribes the police for Daniel's temporary release to film a key scene, in which Colón and his conquistadors execute Hatuey and his rebels. Upon this scene's completion, the police arrive and detain Daniel again, but are besieged by the film's extras, who allow him to escape.

That night, actors Juan and Alberto see the news reports of violence in Cochabamba, become worried and demand to leave. Sebastián begs them to stay, and they agree begrudgingly. The next day, as the cast and crew prepare to depart for filming, Costa is met by Daniel's wife, Teresa, who implores him to assist her in finding Belén, who has disappeared into the protests and is reportedly wounded and needing hospitalization. Despite Costa trying to turn her down he is eventually won over by Teresa's persistence, and despite Sebastián's equally impassioned insistence against it, he leaves with her.

Riding through the streets of Cochabamba, Costa sees the damage done to the city, finally realizing the seriousness of their current situation.

After Costa and Teresa's obstacle-laden drive, Belén's life is saved, but her leg is badly injured and may never fully heal. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is stopped by a military blockade, and all except Antón leave Sebastián to journey home. The revolution ends shortly thereafter with the departure of the multinational water company, but Cochabamba is left in ruins from the conflict. Costa expresses hope that the film will be finished after all, and Daniel emotionally presents him with a vial of Bolivian water in appreciation for saving his daughter.

Cast

• Luis Tosar as Costa, executive producer in the movie
• Gael García Bernal as Sebastián, director in the movie
• Juan Carlos Aduviri as Daniel, Bolivian native cast as Hatuey
• Karra Elejalde as Antón, alcoholic Spanish actor cast as Colón
• Raúl Arévalo as Juan, Spanish actor cast as Montesinos
• Carlos Santos as Alberto, Spanish actor cast as Las Casas
• Cassandra Ciangherotti as María, assistant director to Sebastián
• Milena Soliz as Belén, Daniel's daughter cast as Panuca in the movie
• Leónidas Chiri as Teresa, Bolivian native and Daniel's wife
• Ezequiel Días as Bruno

Release

On 16 September 2010, the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In October, it released in the United States (Los Angeles, California), Britain (London Film Festival), and Spain (Valladolid Film Festival).^[5] It made its French debut at the Les Arcs Film Festival in December 2010.^[5] It was screened in the Panorama section at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, followed by the 2011 Sydney Film Festival.^[6] After special screenings in Cochabamba's Southern Zone and for the Bolivian press, it opened in Bolivia on twelve screens on March 17, 2011.^[7]

Reception

Historical context

The mayor and the Bolivian government were wrong to insist on an expensive and unnecessary dam. But the bigger problem was that [the state utility company] Semapa's water tariffs had been too low for too long, starving the system of investment. Had the tariffs been raised earlier, more cash would have been available to improve service. These twin failings meant that any new contract, public or private, was bound to lead to unacceptable price rises.

— The Economist^[14]

The restoration of civilian rule to Bolivia in 1982 ended decades of military dictatorships, but did not bring economic stability. In 1985, with hyperinflation at an annual rate of 25 thousand percent, few foreign investors would do business in the country.^[15] The Bolivian government turned to the World Bank as a last refuge against economic meltdown. For the next 20 years, successive governments followed the World Bank's provisions in order to qualify for continued loans from the organization.^[15] In order to move towards independent development, Bolivia privatised its railways, telephone system, national airlines, and hydrocarbon industry. In October 1999, the privatization of Cochabamba's municipal water supply followed, allowed by a new law and the investment of a new firm, Aguas del Tunari – a joint venture involving San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation. The agreement involved the firm investing in a long-envisioned dam so they dramatically raised water rates.^[16]

Protests, largely organized through the Coordinadora in Defense of Water and Life, a community coalition, erupted in January, February, and April 2000, culminating in tens of thousands marching downtown and battling police in the 2000 Cochabamba protests. In April 2000, the national government reached an agreement with the Coordinadora to reverse the privatization. The wave of demonstrations and police violence was described as a public uprising against water prices.^[17]

Production

Even the Rain is one of Icíar Bollaín's most ambitious films. Shot in Bolivia, in the Chapare jungle, and in the city of Cochabamba, the film is a large production with more than 4,000 extras in total, with about 300 of the extras being indigenous people, as well as a team of 130 people and more than 70 locations, almost all of them outdoors.^[18]

Fact and fiction

Even the Rain is a movie within a movie. It follows the production of a period film about the myth of Christopher Columbus, whom few paint as he really was: a man obsessed with gold, a slave hunter, and a repressor of ethnic groups. The story's context is based on real events in the year 2000, the Cochabamba Water War, when the population of one of the poorest nations in South America rose up against a powerful American company, Bechtel, and recovered a basic good: water.^[19] The strikes and protests of citizens were left ignored for days after the American company tried to raise the price of water. The scale of the protest was such that Bechtel eventually abandoned the Bolivian market, the water contract was canceled, and a new company was installed under public control. In 2005, half of the 60,000 people in Cochabamba were still without water and the rest only received intermittent service (some for as little as three hours a day). The film portrays the lasting impacts of colonialism on native people on multiple levels, as well as the continuation of colonialism in today's society.^[20] In many ways, the film can refer back to the deep historical roots about resistance against colonialism. Even in an entirely different time period, the Bolivian people still resist Western influence and political corruption to gain rights.

See also

• Cinema of Spain
• List of submissions to the 83rd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Spanish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Bolivian presidential election, 2005
• Water supply and sanitation in Bolivia
• The Corporation (2003), documentary that features the Cochabamba protests, directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott^[21]
• Blue Gold: World Water Wars (2008) directed by Sam Bozzo
• Quantum of Solace (2008), a James Bond movie whose main theme is the water supply issue in Bolivia^[22][23]

Further reading

• "Bolivia: The state of siege is no excuse for human rights violations" by Amnesty International, April 2000.^[24]
• Violence Erupts in Bolivia by BBC in April 2000^[25]
• "Return to Cochabamba," a 2008 report by Jean Friedman-Rudovsky on post-revolutionary Bolivia^[26]
• ¡Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera in collaboration with Tom Lewis^[27]
• Timeline: Cochabamba Water Revolt,^[23]
• Water Privatization Case Study: Cochabamba, Bolivia by Public Citizen^[28]
• "Cochabamba – Water War," a June 2000 report commissioned and published by the U.K.-based Public Services International Research Unit^[29][30]
• "The Politics of Water" in Bolivia by Jim Shultz in January 2005 for The Nation.^[31]
• "Letter from Bolivia: Leasing the Rain," by William Finnegan in 2002 for The New Yorker^[32]

References

External links

• Even the Rain at IMDb
• Even the Rain at AllMovie
• Even the Rain at Rotten Tomatoes
• Even the Rain Archived 2022-05-21 at the Wayback Machine indieWIRE
• Blurring Past and Present Interview with director Iciar Bollain on The Mantle.