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Yana-Wara

View on the Pragda STREAM site

Yana-Wara is a stark, black-and-white drama that weaves together communal justice, gender violence, and Andean spirituality in the windswept highlands of southern Peru.

At 80 years old, Don Evaristo faces the communal justice system, accused of murdering his 13-year-old granddaughter, Yana-Wara, while the entire community gathers to decide his fate. As the testimonies unfold, the hearing frames the film, and the villagers gradually reconstruct the girl’s story, shifting between the present-day proceedings and the harsh, luminous landscapes where she once herded llamas and carried out daily chores after her mother’s death.

Drawing on Andean mythologies and real testimonies that inspired the directors, Oscar and Tito Catacora, the film blurs the line between social realism and the supernatural. It suggests that the landscape itself bears witness to the community’s unspoken crimes. The villagers act almost like a Greek chorus: they observe, judge, and at times participate in punishment. In the end, nature, spirits, and law converge to question who truly holds responsibility for Yana-Wara’s death.

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