Utama

Alejandro Loayza Grisi isn’t interested in story or action here, he's interested in the enormity of seemingly small lives.

If you only see one film about Bolivian llama farmers this year, make it Utama.

A gentle and superbly shot film.

A film of dazzling visual power and genuine poignancy.

It is a spare and yet unsparing film, and a bold artistic statement from an emerging filmmaker.

“Utama” pulls you in with an uneasy mix of beauty and dread.

Utama is a stark reminder that climate change haunts the land and the earth. A poignant film that expresses that land and cultures are important and not easy to let go of.

Utama is not an easy watch. Why would it be? The topics it covers are as sad as it gets. But it is not a miserablist indulgence either. There is great joy and life here too.

See it just for the photography by Bárbara Alvarez and the masterful way it’s integrated with the music and sound by first-time filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi. The family drama on the desert landscape is sublime.

Beautiful beyond measure but never showy, deliberate, and set among elderly people of a tiny community high in the hills of Bolivia, a film like Utama feels impossible.