Even the Rain

También la lluvia

Even the Rain

Icíar Bollaín

Sebastián is an idealistic and slightly naive director who is planning to make a film about Christoph Columbus, debunking the myth that western civilisation may have brought anything good to Latin America. Instead he wants to show what Columbus set in motion: the thirst for gold, the slave trade and terrible violence against the indigenous population. Sebastián‘s friend and producer, Costa, is only interested in the film staying within budget and being completed on time. For this reason he produces the film in Bolivia, the poorest and most »Indian« country in South America. During shooting in the city of Cochabamba there is unrest because the local water supply has been privatised by an Anglo-American company. Violence escalates through the city: 500 years after Columbus, the Indian population, with nothing but sticks and stones, again confronts a heavily armed modern army. This time the fight is about the most basic of all resources: water.
Icíar Bollaín links three narrative threads in También la lluvia. The historical drama goes deep into the country‘s past, the Wasserkrieg [Water War] alludes to more recent Bolivian history, and the personal experiences of director Sebastián and his producer Costa show the circumstances they find themselves in and explains the decisions they are forced to make. También la lluvia provides a skilfully staged analysis of the topicality of colonial myths and the reality of today‘s social struggles.

Director

Icíar Bollaín

Script

Paul Laverty

Cinematograhy

Alex Catalan

Editing

Ángel Hernández Zoido

Sound

Emilio Cortés

Music

Alberto Iglesias

Cast

Luis Tosar, Gael García Bernal, Juan Carlos Aduviri, Karra Elejalde, Carlos Santos, Raúl Arévalo

Production

Juan Gordon

Contact

Wild Bunch

Portrait of director Icíar Bollaín

Icíar Bollaín

Icíar Bollaín was born in Madrid in 1967. She worked as an actress and appeared in such films as El Sur (1983) by Victor Erice, Malaventura (1988) by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Land and Freedom (1995) by Ken Loach and Leo (2000) by José Luis Borau, for which she was awarded the Goya Prize as Best Actress. She is a partner in the production company La Iguana SL and produces both feature and documentary films. In 1995, she made her debut feature film Hola ¿estás sola?, which won the award for Best Director at the Valladolid Film Festival and became a major box office success in Spain in 1996. Her second film Flowers from Another World received the International Critics’ Week Award in Cannes in 1999. Her next film Open my Eyes received seven Goyas, including the Best Film Award. Even the Rain won three Goyas and the Panorama Audience Award at the 2011 Berlinale.


Films by Icíar Bollaín
Katmandú, un espejo en el cielo 2011 | También la lluvia 2010 | Mataharis 2007 | Te doy mis ojos 2003 | Flores de otro mundo 1999 | Hola, ¿estás sola? 1995