DARK SKULL – Viejo Calavera
Bolivia, 2016
Spanish with English subtitles | 80 min 
Director: Kiro Russo

Monday, August 27th
9pm @ The Cinematheque
Wednesday, August 29th 
3pm @ The Cinematheque

Elder Mamaní’s father has died, and it looks as if young Elder couldn’t care less, even though he has no one to take care of him now. He goes to live with his grandmother on the outskirts of the mining city, Huanuni, where Francisco, his godfather, gives him a job at the mine. But it doesn’t take long for Elder, who prefers spending his time getting high and wandering through dangerous alleys at night, to mess it up. On top of things, he soon finds out a dark secret regarding Francisco’s involvement in his father’s death… Shot on location in local mines and with real workers, Kiro Russo’s first feature film provides a portrait of the efforts and challenges of the mining world and reveals a little-explored side of Bolivian life.

“A work of rigorous and dazzling brilliance. An accomplished portrait of loss and grief among the contradictions and transformations of the Bolivian mining industry. A film about the dignity and resilience of labour and the beauty of cinema.” – IndieLisboa International Jury

Grand Prize City of Lisbon, IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival, 2017
Special Mention – Best Director, BAFICI, 2016

Después de la muerte de su padre, Elder Mamani se ve obligado a vivir con su abuela en las afueras de la pequeña ciudad minera de Huanuni. Su padrino Francisco, le consigue trabajo en la mina, pero a él parece no interesarle en lo más mínimo: se la pasa bebiendo y metiéndose en problemas constantemente. Ademas, pronto descubrirá un secreto oscuro acerca del involucramiento de Francisco en la muerte de su padre. El primer largometraje de Kiro Russo retrata los esfuerzos y desafíos de la comunidad minera y revela una cara poca explorada de la sociedad boliviana.

Kiro’s Shorts Filmography: New Life (2015), Juku (2011), Enterprisse (2010)

Kiro Russo, director, producer and scriptwriter, he was born in La Paz, Bolivia. He studied directing at Universidad del cine in Buenos Aires. He made the short films Enterprisse (2010), Juku (2012) and New Life (2015) winning prices in important film festivals all around the world: Locarno film festival (Swiss), San Sebastian film festival (Spain), Indie Lisboa (Portugal), Ficunam (Mexico), Jihlava international documentary (Czech Republic) , Kaohsiung Film Festival(Taiwan), among many others. These works have a very close relationship with his first feature film Viejo Calavera now in post-production.

Preceded by:
THROUGH A WINDOW – Desde una ventana

Director: Sebastián Hiriart
Mexico, 16 min

In the short story collection Cartucho, Nellie Campobello (1900-1986) chronicled her experiences as a child during the Mexican Revolution. In this modern adaptation of one of those stories, a 10-year-old girl contemplates the hostile and violent reality that has not changed, even with the turn of the century.