Even the Rain ( También la lluvia ) ( Même la pluie )

Even the Rain (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: También la lluvia
Alternate Title: Même la pluie
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Berlin International Film Festival
Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
European Film Awards
Goya Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
99 min

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Deleted Scenes
Interactive Menu
Making Of
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2010 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Mexico ( Latin America, Mexico )
Spain ( Spain, Portugal )

Directed By:
Icíar Bollaín

Written By:
Paul Laverty

Actors:
Luis Tosar ..... Costa
Gael García Bernal ..... Sebastián
Juan Carlos Aduviri ..... Daniel / Atuey
Karra Elejalde ..... Antón / Colón
Raúl Arévalo ..... Juan / Montesinos
Carlos Santos ..... Alberto / Las Casas
Cassandra Ciangherotti ..... María
Milena Soliz ..... Belén / Panuca
Leónidas Chiri ..... Teresa
Ezequiel Diaz ..... Bruno
Pau Cólera ..... Actor capitán
Vicente Romero ..... Actor comandante
Antonio Mora ..... Actor franciscano
Daniel Currás ..... Soldado gallego
Glenda Rodriguez ..... Asistente casting

Synopsis:

Political film 'Even the Rain' makes pertinent, if heavy-handed, comparisons between European imperialism five centuries ago and modern globalization. In particular it portrays high-end filming on location in poor countries as an offshoot of colonial exploitation. The movie is set in and around Cochabamba, Bolivia's third-largest city, which the movie's fictional penny-pinching film producer, Costa (Luis Tosar), has chosen as a cheap stand-in for Hispaniola in a movie he is making about Christopher Columbus. The year is 2000, and Costa is unprepared to deal with the real-life populist uprising in Bolivia after its government has sold the country's water rights to a private multinational consortium. Local wells from which the people have drawn their water for centuries are abruptly sealed. Riots erupt when the rates charged by the water company prove ruinous. The rebellion ends only after the protests have brought Bolivia to a standstill and the company has withdrawn. The title, 'Even the Rain', refers to the notion that catching rainwater would be illegal.

Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Costa (Luis Tosar), both in their mid thirties, are life long friends only in the way a warring couple might be. Sebastian is an obsessive idealist who has sworn to his inner self that he will direct a film about one of the worlds most iconic figures, Christopher Columbus (Karra Elejalde). Not for him the hypocritical lies of a genius sailor on a divine mission to win souls for Christ. He is determined to upturn the entire conservative myth of Western Civilization's arrival in the Americas as a force for good. Rather, his story is about what Columbus set in motion; the obsession with gold, the hunt for slaves by Spanish mastiffs, and punitive violence to those Indians who fought back. His story is counterbalanced by the radical priests Bartolome de las Casas (Raul Arevalo) and Antonio Montestinos (Carlos Santos) who were the first to raise their voice in defence of the Indians, and ask the question, Are these men? Sebastian is also obsessed by the first Indian leader to resist - Hatuey (Carlos Aduviri), who was nailed to a cross and crucified as example to those who oppose the Christians. The talented and brilliant actor playing Columbus constantly challenges Sebastian and accuses him of agit prop and cheap manipulation. Costa doesn't give a shit. He cares little about what happened yesterday, never mind 500 years ago. The only thing that matters to him is his professional pride as a producer - that the film is made on time and within budget. Costa has come up with an insane idea, but the only way to get a difficult film made within the limitations of their modest budget. Despite Sebastian's fury, they will shoot in Bolivia, the cheapest and most Indian of Latin American countries.As the shoot progresses in and around the city of Cochabamba, so too does civil and political unrest simmer below the surface as the entire water supply of the city is privatized and sold to a British and American multinational. As Sebastian and Costa struggle with their film the violence in the community in which they shoot increases by the day, until the entire city explodes into the now infamous Bolivian Water War. (This actually took place in April 2000.) 500 years after Columbus sticks and stones confront steel and gun powder of a modern army. David against Goliath once again. Only this time they fight not about gold, but the simplest of life-giving elements - water.

Spanish director Sebastián, his executive producer Costa and all his crew are in Bolivia, in the Cochabamba area, to shoot a motion picture about Christopher Columbus, his first explorations and the way the Spaniards treated the Indians at the time. Costa has chosen this place because the budget of the film is tight and here he can hire supernumeraries, local actors and extras on the cheap. Things go more or less smoothly until a conflict erupts over the privatization of the water supply. The trouble is that one of the local actors, is a leading activist in the protest movement.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 21 December, 2011.

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