Can a film about historical exploitation avoid repeating the very sins it depicts?
In short: A production crew arrives in Bolivia to film a historical drama about Christopher Columbus, only to find themselves caught in the middle of a modern-day uprising. As the local extras they hired begin protesting water privatization, the filmmakers face a harrowing choice between their budget and their conscience.
The 2010 drama Even the Rain, helmed by filmmaker Icíar Bollaín and scripted by Paul Laverty, explores the unsettling parallels between the 16th-century conquest of the Americas and the 2000 Cochabamba Water War. The plot follows a Spanish production team that travels to Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America, to film a movie about Columbus and the indigenous resistance led by Hatuey. To save money, the producer, Costa, recruits local residents as extras, unaware that his lead actor, Daniel, is a prominent figure in the local movement against a multinational water company.
As the film production progresses, the real-world conflict intensifies. The local population, organized by the Coordinadora in Defense of Water and Life, protests against the privatization of municipal water supplies, which had led to dramatic price hikes. The film captures the irony of the crew filming scenes of historical colonial abuse while simultaneously exploiting the local extras, who are underpaid and treated as mere tools for the production. This tension reaches a breaking point when the lead actor is detained by police during the riots, forcing the producer to confront his own complicity in the systems of power he is depicting.
Critics remain divided on the film's meta-narrative. While some praise its ability to connect personal morality with historical structures, others, including Roger Ebert and Stephen Holden, question whether the filmmakers themselves exploited the very people they sought to champion. Despite the film's critical success and its selection as a Spanish entry for the 83rd Academy Awards, the reality of the Cochabamba water crisis was far more complex than a simple victory. By 2005, years after the protests forced the water company to leave, nearly half of the city's 855,000 residents still lacked reliable access to water, highlighting the persistent challenges of economic and social stability in the region.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Even the Rain
- Also: Wikidata — Even the Rain · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Even the rain is different · CC0
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