Return to the Andes

In the remote Peruvian province of Antonio Raimondi, where men have always held office, director Mitchell Teplisky documents the mayoral candidacy of Nélida Silva. After living in the United States for two decades, Silva returned to her Ancash hometown out of a concern for its welfare. The citizens share a long litany of complaints with the filmmaker: no running water, bad roads, frequent landslides, and few doctors. Silva believes that a region rich in resources should be generating a greater return to its citizenry. In turn, locals demand more than lip service from their elected officials, but will they vote for a woman, particularly one who traded Peru for the States? Silva explains that her parents sent her to Lima to get an education. She studied accounting, danced professionally, and then traveled to the US for two days that grew into 20 years, in part because the political situation in Peru had grown so dangerously corrupt. She went on to study business administration and to work with non-profits that encourage economic self-determination for women (there's mention of a husband, but the film provides no information about him). She continues the same kind of work in Raimondi, but rumors abound that she dislikes poor people, won't eat local food and demands to be carried on a throne, though no one presents evidence to back up these claims. In the film, she holds rallies, travels over steep, muddy terrain to meet with voters, and shakes a lot of hands. Women seem more enthusiastic than men and voter fraud is rife. If Silva writes a happy ending for herself, it isn't necessarily the one she originally sought. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)