Capital Celluloid 2022 — Day 64: Sun Mar 6

Blood of the Condor (Sanjinés, 1970): Barbican Cinema, 6.15pm


This film is part of the ‘Other Modernisms’ season at the Barbican. Full details here.

The falling birth rate and high infant mortality are noted with concern by the inhabitants of a remote Andean village. As rumour swirl, corrupt local police open fire on some local men. Ignacio, the sole survivor, is taken by his wife to La Paz for hospital care. There, his brother desperately tries to scrape together the cash for a blood transfusion, a quest that leads him to some shocking discoveries. Blood of the Condor was made in Quechua, and with the participation of (and starring) people from the village where it was shot. Its baseline realism is overlaid with an intricate narrative structure that makes extensive use of flashbacks, a technique borrowed from European art cinema.

Here (and above) is an extract.

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