| Even the Rain | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Icíar Bollaín |
| Produced by | Juan Gordon Pilar Benito Eric Altmayer Monica Lozano Serrano Emma Lustres |
| Written by | Paul Laverty |
| Screenplay by | Paul Laverty |
| Starring | Luis Tosar Gael García Bernal Juan Carlos Aduviri Karra Elejalde Raúl Arévalo |
| Music by | Alberto Iglesias |
| Cinematography | Alex Catalán |
| Editing by | Ángel Hernández Zoido |
| Studio | Morena Films Alebrije Cine y Video Mandarin Cinema |
| Distributed by | Vitagraph Films |
| Release date(s) | September 16, 2010 (TIFF) October 23, 2010 (VIFF) |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Country | Spain Mexico France |
| Language | Spanish Quechua English |
| Box office | $558,342 (USA) |
Even the Rain (Spanish: También la lluvia) is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín about Mexican director Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest. Sebastián and Costa unexpectedly land themselves in a moral crisis when they and their crew arrive at Cochabamba, Bolivia during the intensifying 2000 Cochabamba protests, which their key, native actor Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) persistently leads. The film was directed by Icíar Bollaín, based on a screenplay by Paul Laverty.
The film received nominations and won awards internationally, including an Ariel Award for Best Ibero-American Film and three Goya Awards, one of which was Best Original Score for the work of Alberto Iglesias. Additionally, the film was nominated as Spain’s entry for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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Mexican filmmaker Sebastián (Gael García Bernal) and his executive producer Costa (Luis Tosar) arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia accompanied by a cast and crew, prepared to create a film depicting Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the imposition of Columbus’s will upon the natives, and the subsequent indigenous rebellion. Cognizant of his limited budget, producer Costa (Luis Tosar) elects to film in Bolivia, the poorest country in South America. There, impoverished locals are thrilled to earn just two dollars a day as extras in the film, and willingly engage in physical labor for set preparation. Costa saves many thousands of dollars by having underpaid extras perform tasks meant to be completed by experienced engineers.
Sebastián casts a local man named Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) in the role of Atuey, the Taíno chief who led a rebellion against the Europeans, and Daniel's daughter Belén in a crucial role as well. At that time, although their first encounter with Daniel smelled like trouble to Costa, enough to oppose his casting, Sebastián is unaware that Daniel leads impassioned demonstrations against the water privatization that the Bolivian government had agreed to. Filming begins smoothly despite the alcoholism of actor Antón, (Karra Elejalde) cast as Colón (Columbus), but when Costa observes Daniel’s revolutionary involvement he grows uneasy. Daniel pretends to acquiesce to Costa's insistence that he stop protesting, but heedlessly continues and sustains facial wounds in a clash with the police. At this point, Costa bribes Daniel with thousands of dollars to wait for filming to conclude before participating in the rebellion again. Daniel agrees, accepting the money, but remains active in the protests, eventually bloodied and 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 in order to film a key movie scene. Upon this scene’s completion, police arrive in the Bolivian jungle to once again detain Daniel but are besieged by the film’s extras and Daniel escapes.
That night when starring actors Juan and Alberto see the latest news reports showing war-like violence in Cochabamba, they become worried to the extent that they demand to leave. Sebastián begs that they stay and they hesitantly agree. The next day, as the cast and crew prepare to depart for filming, Costa is met by Daniel’s wife, Teresa, who desperately implores him to assist her in finding her daughter Belén, who has disappeared into the protests and is reportedly wounded and needs hospitalization. Teresa’s persistence wins over Costa’s conscience, despite Sebastián's equally impassioned insistence he leave for the airport and safety with the rest of the cast and crew. After Costa and Teresa's obstacle-laden drive through riotous Cochabamba, Belén’s life is preserved, but her leg does not 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 ruin 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 his life-saving efforts.
The film premiered on September 16, 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival, then debuted during October of the same year in the USA (Los Angeles, California), Britain (London Film Festival), and Spain (Valladolid Film Festival).[1] It made its French debut at the Les Arcs International Film Festival in December 2010.[1] It was screened in the Main Programme of the Panorama section at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival and additionally during the 2011 Sydney Film Festival.[2]
The film was selected in September 2010, over Daniel Monzón’s Cell 211 which also stars Luis Tosar, as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 83rd Academy Awards.[3] In January 2011, it landed a spot on the list of the top nine films in its category.[4] However, it was not selected to be among the final five films nominated for the Oscar.
The film received generally positive reviews, earning an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but some critics pointed out potential hypocrisy as a shortcoming.[5] Roger Ebert admires the filmmakers’ courage in choosing the Bolivian water crisis as subject matter, but notes potential hypocrisy, writing, “…at the end I looked in vain for a credit saying, ‘No extras were underpaid in the making of this film.’”[6] New York Times writer Stephen Holden also raises this concern, asserting, “You can’t help but wonder to what degree its makers exploited the extras recruited to play 16th-century Indians.”[7] Also, Holden addresses Costa’s transformation, writing, “Mr. Tosar goes as far as he can to make the character’s change of heart believable, but he can’t accomplish the impossible.”[7] Contrarily, Marshall Fine of the Huffington Post views Tosar’s efforts as praiseworthy, calling him “perfect as the producer: bull-headed, charming, conniving and wheedling when he needs to be – but a man with a vision, who ultimately gets his mind changed. Tosar makes his conflict not only credible but palpable.”[8] Praising the film overall, Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post calls Even the Rain “a story in which personal connections can transcend even the most crushing structures of history and politics.”[9]
From the 1950s through the 1980s, Bolivia attempted unsuccessfully to curb poverty through “structuralist” measures: government regulation of natural resources.[10] As a result, the nation acquired a reputation for ineffective self-management and, accordingly, the World Bank and IMF heavily influenced the Bolivian government to outsource public goods.[10] Evidencing this influence, the IMF approved a $138 million loan to Bolivia for economic growth, but under the condition that Bolivia agreed to outsource “all remaining public enterprises,” including Cochabamba’s water agency.[11] Thus, the Bolivian government auctioned off rights to some of its water utilities; as the sole bidder for the Cochabamba water agency, Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, agreed to a forty-year contract with the Bolivian government in October 1999. By January 2000 it had assumed total control over the water supply of Cochabamba.[10] After just one month, the metropolitan area of Cochabamba, a medium-size city within the poorest country in South America, experienced increases to water prices of up to 200-300 percent under Aguas del Tunari, and protest ensued.[10]
In depicting the water privatization conflict, Even the Rain focuses heavily on revolutionary efforts of the mistreated Bolivians instead of government or water company injustice. In doing so, the makers of the film create a lucid parallel between the uprising of the Bolivian people and the Taíno revolution, which is the subject matter of Sebastián’s film. Other films such as Quantum of Solace (2008), starring Daniel Craig, take a more top-heavy approach to the subject matter, centering instead on corporative executives’ tyranny. Similarly, Abuela Grillo, an animated short-film created at the The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, cinematically exposes the corporations’ villainy, through juxtaposing animated appearances of desperate Bolivians with autonomous, wealthy business executives. This short-film depicts the riot between the citizenry and the law enforcement in Bolivia with many elements also present in Even the Rain: teargas, riot gear, and overturned vehicles. The animation differs though in lacking gore such as the video of Victor Hugo Daza, a 17-year old boy murdered in the riot, which is displayed in Even the Rain and documentaries including The Corporation (film) and an installment of TV news journal NOW on PBS presented by Bill Moyers (clips available here). The aforementioned documentaries, in the spirit of documentary film, present many actual clips of the protests, both peaceful and violent. In Even the Rain, several clips contained in these documentaries are incorporated through newscasts viewed by the filmmakers.