Political Violence, Cinematic Representation, and Peruvian National Identity: La Boca del Lobo (Francisco Lombardi, 1988) and La Vida es una Sola (Marianne Eyde, 1993)

Abstract

In May 1980, as Peru was returning to democracy after twelve years of military rule, a fundamentalist splinter group of the pro-Maoist Peruvian Communist Party, Sendero Luminoso, broke into a polling station in the Andean town of Chuschi, Ayacucho, and destroyed the ballot boxes. This act of aggression is usually taken as marking the onset of twelve years of armed struggle, which evolved into a “dirty” political war between the military and Sendero that persisted through three presidencies (Belaúnde 1980–1985, García 1985–1990, and Fujimori 1990–2000), until the capture of the insurgent group’s leader, Abimael Guzmán, in 1992. This chapter will look at how some aspects of this bloody conflict have been dealt with by two of Peru’s most important filmmakers. However, before doing so it is important to outline some of the key factors underpinning the development of Sendero; in particular, its inextricable links to the complexities of Peru’s national identity, and the importance of its response to the growing alienation of the Andean communities as compared to the relative prosperity of city-based mestizos and coastal criollos.