‘Yana-Wara’ Review: Timely Tale of a Young Indigenous Woman Wronged Is Stunted by Its Performances

variety.com:

Manuel Betancourt When Óscar Catacora’s 2017 film “Wiñaypacha” (“Eternity”) was released, it marked the first feature film to be produced entirely in Aymara, the language of the Aymara people from the Andean region.

A poetic exploration of a changing world that was anchored by the beautiful vistas of that oft-inhospitable landscape, it announced the young Peruvian writer-director (barely 30 at the time) as a promising talent.

Sadly, Catacora passed away in 2021 when he’d just begun production on his follow-up, “Yana-Wara.” Finished by his producing partner and uncle, Tito Catacora, the intriguing tale of justice in a small indigenous community lacks the raw lyricism of the younger Catacora’s earlier work. “Yana-Wara” is titled after its central character, a young orphan girl who has been found dead.

The question is not whether her grandfather Don Evaristo (Cecilio Quispe Ch.) has killed her. That much is clear. It’s whether his killing of his teenage granddaughter (played by Luz Diana Mamami) was warranted, punishable — and in either case, to what extent.