Cinema in Peru is undergoing a revolution of sorts as a growing number of filmmakers tap into the tastes of local audiences and find fresh financing schemes to bring their pics to plexes.
Peruvian cinema has been for long a bastion of weighty dramas that focus on issues such as terrorism, poverty, class differences and race,
“Several filmmakers are distancing themselves from the usual serious drama that used to populate local productions, and moving into traditional, straightforward genres like animation, comedy, suspense and horror,” Jorge Licetti said.
Licetti's latest film was the domestic hit “Asu Mare!”, distributed by New Century, stars comedian and thesp Carlos Alcantara as he relates his life through his mother’s point of view in a mix of standup routines and re-enactments.
The laffer, directed by Ricardo Maldonado, grossed $12 million at the Peruvian box office last year, surpassing the country’s previous all-time B.O. record-holder, 2012’s “Ice Age: Continental Drift,” at $9.6 million.
At least 15 homegrown films are expected to bow this year, with some sources saying there are nearly 30 in the pipeline — a big bump over the past couple of years, which saw Peru release an average of eight movies annually.
In a country where government film incentives are still small, producer Miguel Valladares of Tondero Films used product placement to fund nearly all the US$ 800,000 budget of “Asu Mare!”. And in another ambitious move, he sold a package of four pics and a play to investors for US$ 1.5 million.
Valladares’ gambit, plus the upturn at the B.O. for local pics, has spurred a virtuous circle, in which more films are being made, and more private investors are willing to fund them.
“Average film budgets in the Andean nation range between US$40,000 and US$1 million,” says Javier Fuentes-Leon, whose noir thriller “The Vanished Elephant,” now in post.
This film has seen 20 percent of its roughly US$ 1 million budget funded by product placement, while the remained was covered by Tondero Films, Colombia’s Dynamo and Spain’s Cactus Flower.
Furthermore, Pierre Vandoorne, audiovisual head of Peru’s Culture Ministry, says that while filmmakers are exploring genres, auteur cinema continues to grow.
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