A delicate drama was presented at the 74th edition of the Berlinale in the Generation K Plus sidebar section. Following Southern Wind (2018) – the story of a granddaughter who reunites with her grandfather after fifteen years, in search of a mythical hidden family treasure – Peruvian author Franco García Becerra moves the audience with his most recent work: Through Rocks and Clouds.
A bittersweet coming-of-age tale that tells life through the dreams of Feliciano, an 8-year-old alpaca shepherd. He loves soccer, and while grazing his beloved animals, he listens to the signals of his faithful dog Rambo with one ear, and with the other, the portable radio that announces the goals that will ultimately qualify Peru for the World Cup.
Against the backdrop of the Andean highlands, in a small village in the Antamarca region that thrives on alpacas, TV or radio are the only aspects of modernity that intrude into the otherwise simple and daily life anchored to traditional values. This is what his family teaches him when they send him to pasture in the morning and welcome him back in front of a fireplace in the evening, warming up with freshly made soup. These are ancestral rhythms and tones, portrayed with expansive shots that capture the breath of the mountains and show humans as one of the many pieces of an untouched and collaborative nature, where people and animals are spiritually close, not because the former are made beastly, but because the latter are humanized.
Thus, Ronaldo is not only an alpaca that the child names and styles after his favorite soccer player, but a companion, confidant, and friend with whom to spend the days and share his desires. A brother whose disappearance later in the film worries him and whose return brings joy.
The world investigated by Becerra is one in which the authenticity of the little things and the sense of community – for better or worse – still exist.
Even when its harmony is disrupted, as in the face of another aspect of so-called “progress” that is about to break the lives of many shepherds.
Another element of external modernity is that, instead of bringing unity and cohesion, like the television in front of which everyone gathers to watch the soccer semifinals, it brings divisions and hatred. In fact, a company from the city decides to start excavation for a mine. While most of the villagers are opposed, some are ready to embrace and even encourage the change.
The two worlds present themselves as opposites: fluorescent, mechanical, and noisy is the outside world that intrudes; warm, genuine, and still unglobalized (Deglobalized?) is the one trying to protect itself from contamination.
A difference that is evident first and foremost in language: Quechua – a testament to an ancient past anchored to the Incas – and the Spanish of those from the city that breaks in.
But perhaps – even in this contemporary and puzzling world, believing in magic is still possible, which is why the child prays to Auki Tayta to find the endangered alpacas.
An ancestral animal-like figure of the mountains and sacred lakes capable of shaking the earth when angry as well as protecting it – never visible but leaving only red traces in its wake.
The same that the young protagonist encounters just before being reunited with his disappeared animals.
One can choose to believe it is just a coincidence or to believe that there truly is an arcane and mysterious entity following us from behind, and in this case, helping us.
Thus, Feliciano, now truly happy and fulfilled, returns to the village.
But he is greeted only by the shouts of the townspeople, who refuse to let the trucks of the construction workers pass.
With a neutral gaze, he observes the scene, and with the same patience, he turns his back, dragging Ronaldo with him towards his true land and the solitude that is never truly solitude, as he knows he’s part of a whole.
This is how we see him in the final scene, a breathtakingly long shot where he is an integral part of the landscape.
First, the alpacas exit the scene, followed by the dog and him together.
The mountain remains, for us to observe its peaceful stability, with clouds moving slowly around it.
It reminds us that the skirmishes between men – who, from our point of view, are immensely significant – ultimately matter very little from a universal perspective. The summit remains serene in the face of our shouts, and the clouds continue to move at the same rhythm. They are the true protagonists of the world, of which we are only one of the many fruits, and perhaps one of the most bitter.
But fortunately, innocence still exists somewhere: that of a child who is still a dreamer.
He will grow up, perhaps losing this grace, perhaps not.
But even just a second of this purity of heart is enough to make humanity worthwhile.
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