Frame "Retablo", 2017
Segundo, Noé, and Anatolia live in the highland region of the Andes. It's summer vacation, and everyone is back in the village since the kids are no longer at school. Contrary to the urban areas, when you are from the rural part of Peru (the Andes in general), that means a break from classes and work. In most cases, work on the field, with hoe and ax.
Before the colonization of America (the continent), before the genocide/massive rape/whatever you want to call it, indigenous nations of the Andes inhabited the plains. That meant that they had access to resources, making the work much more manageable. Once the colonizers arrived, they displaced them to the Punas (around 15000 feet above sea level), where life was/is tough. A rough atmosphere translates to a complex community, where everything from traveling to getting potable water is strenuous. On top of that, coloniality -the aftermath of colonization- runs culture, labor, intersubjective relations, and knowledge production. So inevitably, there are uncountable social tensions within the communities derived from all of that.
We see our main characters struggling with nature, Noe and Segundo walking for several miles to get to the main road. From there, they mobilize extra several miles with a communal source of transportation. Only then, after a whole journey, can they sell their retablos. On the other hand, Anatolia has a walking disability, so she uses a cane to move on the uneven floor. Throughout the film, we see her battling with the environment the same way she does in her intimate life. She needs to fight the elements.
