Institute History
Description
Francisco Lombardi, Peru's most renowned filmmaker, has achieved international acclaim for his densely scripted and finely acted portrayals of military madness and deeply rooted racist attitudes in his beleaguered homeland. Caidos del Cielo opens with a spectacular vista of the Pacific Ocean; slowly the camera pans to reveal an entire seacoast littered with mountains of garbage. This contradiction sets the stage for a bitingly funny portrait of three interrelated slices of Peruvian life. An elderly couple, remnants of the effete landed aristocracy, are consumed by their need to build a grand marble mausoleum. where they can be reunited with their dead son. However, dizzying inflation forces them to sell everything to complete it. Meanwhile the city is blanketed by a mellifluous radio voice, preaching pop psychology to the lovelorn, the poverty stricken and the damned: "You are your own destiny! You control your life! You can turn garbage into gold!" At the same time, a crotchety old blind woman living in a hovel on the dunes forces her two grandchildren to collect garbage to fatten her prize pig—her ticket to financial freedom. The two children become deathly ill from the rotting refuse. Caidos del Cielo is a wicked satire of the social and political confusion that reigns supreme in the impossibility known as Peru.