The Great Movement (2022) An idiosyncratic portrait of Bolivia (Review)

The Great Movement is the most recent film by Bolivian filmmaker Kiro Russo. During its relatively short run time, we follow three miners who are in the city of La Paz protesting against their redundancy and looking for a stable job in the process. However, one of them named Elder gets sick and as the film progresses this illness gets gradually worse. This causes the three friends to both find work but also try to find treatment for their friend, the plot doesn’t have much more to it than that.

Opening with this atmospheric music that sounds brooding and at times verging on the score of a horror film. This score is accompanied by huge shots of Bolivia, both of the bustling markets in the city and the huge forest landscapes that engulf the outskirts of the city. We are then introduced to our characters with little back story – all we know is these people have walked for seven days to find work and have been greeted with conflict with the police during a protest. The Great Movement starts off feeling like a documentary film with its incredibly grounded sense of realism and its ability to fling you straight into the action. Although quickly it turns into something a lot more idiosyncratic and even fantastical at times, blurring the line between reality and surrealism.

It is clear even from the first 10 minutes that the director is taking large influence from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, whose films are known to have very loose plots, dense themes and prolonged shots of nature. Weerasethakul is known to combine grounded realism with a grand sense of fantasy that often isn’t explainable and that is exactly what Russo is going for in this film. There are scenes that follow a shaman as he wanders through the woods chasing a white hunting dog; one other scene sees the characters randomly break out into dancing whilst booming Italian synth music roars out. Magical realism is something that can be incredibly interesting when done correctly (for example Jacques Rivette with films like Le Pont Du Nord and Celine and Julie Go Boating) however, in this film it often feels janky and far from natural.

Most of the praise for this film is in the visuals and sound design. Some really breathtaking shots of woodlands and market stalls capture both the serenity of nature and the chaotic inner-city life. Although one thing that is noticeable is just how dark the film is, some of the scenes can become hard to actually see due to how the lighting is set up, this could be intentional but it was off-putting at times, especially with how easy it is to get lost with this film.

Starting the film is this incredibly ominous and actually sort of creepy music that almost feels like you are about to get sucked into a horror film. Throughout the film, the sound production is really great, with every small sound effect being noticeable and giving life to the streets of La Paz that are being captured on film. Also, there is an absolutely astounding montage shot towards the end of the film which is one scene where it really shines. Russo dissolves all narrative and focuses slowly on images of the city and its inhabitants. Images rapidly shift to the increasing intensity of the music until it crescendos and we return to soothing bliss, it is an amazing sequence.

There are likely a lot of regional contexts that this film is feeding into – a lot of emphasis placed on the lack of work and how many people are overworked and simultaneously underpaid. Bolivia has had a rough period politically over the last few years with the 2019 elections where due to claims of fraud (later to be proved as fraudulent claims) the president Evo Morales resigned at the “request” of the military; aka the polite way of performing a military coup. Due to this, a wave of protests struck the country, these clashes between protesters (which included people blockading roads and turning off power to various places) and the government forces became increasingly violent and resulted in the deaths of protesters.

It is said that Elder’s illness in the film is most likely caused by both dust due to mining and also physical and mental exhaustion; because of this, the illness feels less like a plot device and more like a grandiose metaphor for the overall state of the proletariat in modern Bolivia. It could also represent the growing poverty in that region. This would tie into the various sub lots that cover police repression and getting screwed over by various people who hire the miners to work.

Ultimately this isn’t going to be a film for everyone. This is for someone looking for a film that is incredibly slow-burning and focuses less on narrative and more on surrealist visuals that capture the themes of death, labour rights and spirituality. However, despite this, even people looking for those things still might find difficulty when watching this film. It takes a large amount of your attention to grasp what is going on and can feel like a slog at times despite the fact it only runs for 85 minutes. Regardless, director Kiro Russo clearly has much potential, hopefully, his next film offers something a bit more interesting and less idiosyncratic solely for the sake of it.

See where THE GREAT MOVEMENT is playing in cinemas NEAR YOU

Autumn’s Archive – The Great Movement