Trailer Park: “Even the Rain” (Starring Gael Garcia Bernal)

If you read the news, or listen to Immortal Technique’s music, you’re most likely aware of the struggles faced by the indigenous people in Latin America. Reading about the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000 reaffirms the notion that rich rapes the poor for money, even if taking water away from human lives generates that money. We can go Revolutionary Vol. 3, and run off on a tangent about Eva Morales and Bolivia’s politics, but for now let’s focus on Spanish filmmaker Icíar Bollaín’s almost-Oscar-nominated, yet still critically acclaimed, Even The Rain. Gael García Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries, Babel) takes the lead as a filmmaker with conflicting inner thoughts. He arrives in Bolivia during the Cochabamba protests and faces heavy steps of emotional dilemma. After all, shooting a film about early humantiarian friars Bartolomé and Montesinos' critical views against encomienda, while taking advantage of waterless natives, only reiterates the fact that Spaniards continue to enforce cultural imperialism. This plot might trigger yawns for some, but for those who are literate enough to read subtitles, we highly recommend this film festival favorite whenever it hits U.S. theaters (an exact theatrical release date is still undetermined).