Even the Rain

An interesting blend of historical commentary and contemporary political-economic diatribe, Icíar Bollaín's Even the Rain draws parallels between 16th-century European imperialism and modern capitalism. A group of filmmakers—headed by intense director Sebastian (Gael García Bernal) and cost-conscious producer Costa (Luis Tosar)—travel to a remote site in Bolivia in order to make a movie about Columbus that also covers Friar Bartolomé de las Casas' protest against the brutal Spanish treatment of the Indians. Local man Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri) is chosen to play a chieftain who resisted the Europeans and was executed as a result. But Daniel turns out to be an activist whose protests against the government's policy of privatizing the water supply lead to his arrest, endangering the filmmakers' ability to complete their project—leaving the outsiders torn between their own professional interests and larger ethical considerations. The juxtaposition of the exploitation of indigenous peoples half a millennium ago with similar treatment today (stemming from equally greedy motives) eventually becomes a bit heavy-handed, but Bollaín's gritty film nevertheless deserves credit for raising provocative contemporary socioeconomic issues in a historically intelligent and dramatically effective way. Recommended. (F. Swietek)