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Chicago International Film Fest
Madeinusa (Claudia Liosa, Spain, Peru)
Set in the fictional Peruvian village of Manayaycuna, Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa is an enigmatic, absorbing fable that mixes bits of Native folklore and Christian hypocrisy. On his way from Lima to work in the mines, Salvador (Carlos De La Torre) gets stuck in Manayaycuna due to flooding just when the town is about to celebrate “Holy Days,” a three-day festival where sin is abolished and anything goes. Fourteen-year-old Madeinusa (Magaly Solier) falls instantly in love with Salvador, whose technological gadgetry and light, gringo eyes “like in the magazines” symbolize freedom from her wayward, debaucherous town.
Madeinusa (whose name I thought was a play on corporate U.S. globalization, is actually a common name in Peru, according to Variety.com) is too busy being nominated “Prettiest, Most Immaculate Virgin” and complying with her father’s (Juan Ubaldo Huamán) sexual advances to do much about Salvador at first. Once she is crowned “Prettiest, Most Immaculate Virgin,” Madeinusa’s job is to un-crucify and blindfold a slack-jawed, rotating-armed Jesus so that the villagers can sin in peace, without the pesky gaze of Damnation frowning down upon them. After Jesus is put to sleep, Madeinusa wastes no time in dropping her drawers for Salvador, which she does in part to ruin her abusive father’s plans of de-virginizing her and because she thinks Salvador will take her to Lima, where her mother has run off to, thus saving her from her hopelessly despondent fate.
Llosa paints the Holy Days festival with a vibrant orgy of brush strokes and sounds, while fireworks illuminate the jubilant two-steps of drunkards chasing each other around with gigantic dildos. A crestfallen old man serves as the timekeeper of this Peruvian mardi gras, counting down the hours of sin on large rolodex cards while pallbearers pour liquor on corpses’ lips and young men rob a pleading old lady of her only pig. Once her maidenhead is lost, Madeinusa suffers all kinds of punishments at the hands of her father and jealous sister (Yiliana Chong), who sews her underwear to her dress and cruelly cuts her thick, flowing hair off. Perpetually childlike with her shrill voice and obedient mannerisms, Madeinusa proves to be anything but innocent by the end of this unconventional coming-of-age tale.
A blend of secular and religious songs about lost love and identity are weaved throughout the story, enriching the Christian ritualism with a distinctly Incan flavor. The villagers of Manayaycuna are hedonistic but not malicious—they seem mostly content to drink and dance around a bonfire wearing ornate animal costumes. None of the characters prove to be sympathetic, however, except for outsider Salvador, who suffers the worst fate of them all. Llosa’s pace is meandering at times, but the adept script (which she wrote as well) and colorful characters make this an attractive debut film. Llosa’s unique camera angles, closely cropped head shots and intriguing, thematic use of rats enhance the narrative progression, in addition to providing some cinematic eye candy.
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