Cinema
La Chaskañawi
Synopsis
After his father's death, Adolfo, a law student, returns to his native town in southern Bolivia. There he discovers Claudina, a chola nicknamed the Chaskañawi, the girl with the big eyes, and falls for her to the point of neglecting his studies and the fiancée intended for him, and of taking to drink. Behind the love story, played out in a small town, are identity, racism, machismo and class struggle, between the families of landowners and the world of the cholas.
Context
The colour film is produced by Sudameris Films; José Cuéllar Urízar wrote the screenplay and shot the film, Hugo directed it with him, and the soundtrack is made up of a selection of Bolivian folklore. Silvia Arévalo plays Claudina, alongside Jorge Marchand. It was released in 1976 at the Tesla cinema, and Luis Espinal wrote a review of it; it adapts the novel by Carlos Medinaceli published twenty-nine years earlier.
Who it is for
In Spanish, with no French version. It is better to know what a chola is in order to understand what is at stake behind a counter.
Prizes and reception
The first film based on the novel; a second adaptation was announced in 2023, entrusted to Antonio Eguino and Paolo Agazzi.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.