Critique, background article, and poem on the short film Atardecer en América
And suddenly, an uncontrollable sadness rises from my stomach, and I feel the tears running. I sit there in front of my computer, in the midst of my research, and find myself crying. I see the images from the short film reappear, I watch the landscape – the Altiplano high plateau – vanish; people, animals, and nature disappear. I see people dying. I hear the buzzwords from the articles I’ve read: Venezuela – the world’s second largest exodus, 7.7 million people, plus climate refugees, drought, rising temperatures, 7,000 kilometers from Venezuela to Chile, and countless unreported cases.
“Atardecer en América” – Sunset over America – is the title of the short film that moved me so deeply and led me to the research I’m now immersed in. The film by Matías Rojas Valencia was presented to the public for the first time at Generation as part of the 75th Berlinale Film Festival. Generation im Rahmen der 75. Berlinale Filmfestspiele das erste Mal der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert.
The documentary focuses on the migration route across the Altiplano – a high plateau in the Andes that stretches through Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. Many people take the dangerous path over the Andes in search of refuge in the more southerly countries. “Atardecer en América” documents a day in the life of a young woman who, like so many others, is fleeing from Venezuela.
Through landscape shots of the region, the short film finds a subtle yet moving way to address the subject. Characteristic are the long, static wide shots and deliberately chosen excerpts in the documentary camera work. The images speak for themselves: an abandoned suitcase next to a bubbling stream, a single shoe among multicolored blades of grass, plastic bags fluttering through the landscape. The presence of these objects shows that people have passed through here—people in search of a better, safer life who fought for their survival.
A finely interwoven soundscape of ambient sounds (the roar of the sea, rumbling thunder, murmuring llamas) forms the sonic tapestry for the voice of the young narrator. In voice-over, she recalls crossing the high plateau. Otherwise, only the landscape speaks. And we do not see the young narrator speaking; we simply watch her as she gazes at the sea. We hear her narrate without seeing her speak—we feel close to her without witnessing what her eyes saw during the fleeing. It is a narrative that does not attempt to filmically unfold the tragedy of migration. Rather, it is a portrait of the region that manages to capture both its beauty and its oppressive role as a migration route in a moving way. Melancholic, but not without hope, the emptiness becomes palpable as one moves between countries, between an old life and a new one.
“Atardecer en América” leaves me with a unifying feeling toward the Altiplano region and the fate of the people traversing this landscape. Stimulated by this feeling, I began researching and suddenly found myself in a vast network of political and social injustice, of endangered ways of life and environmental destruction, that nearly overwhelms me. Why do I not know all this? How can it be that no one told me that more than seven million people have fled Venezuela? That this is the second largest exodus in the world? I am repeatedly struck by how Eurocentric German media and the German education system are. Therefore, below is a brief insight into my research:
Why do oeople flee Venezuela?
Venezuela’s history is marked by colonialism, dictatorship, and military regimes. Through oil sales, Venezuela was, for a short time during the 1970s and 1980s, one of the wealthiest countries in South America, but it soon plunged into a severe economic crisis. The ongoing humanitarian emergency is due to massive corruption, falling oil prices, and systematic violations of civil and political rights. Since President Maduro took office in 2013, the economy has shrunk by one third. Hyperinflation has rendered money practically worthless. Poverty and hunger are the consequences. The healthcare system has collapsed, and crime has risen sharply. Since the crisis began, 7.7 million people have left the country – that is more than one fifth of the population. Most take the route across the Altiplano high plateau in the hope of finding refuge in more stable countries like Peru or Chile.
The Altiplano Region
The Altiplano high plateau is a vast, elevated plain in the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina. It lies at an altitude of 3,500–4,500 meters above sea level and, after the Tibetan Plateau, is the second highest inhabited plateau in the world. The Altiplano is one of the driest regions on Earth. The area is characterized by volcanoes, salt flats, highland lakes, and arid plains. Because oxygen levels are low and water scarce, plants are extremely resilient. Climate change has extreme effects on the Andes region. Not only is the melting of glaciers (the Chacaltaya Glacier in Bolivia has already completely disappeared) alarming, but above all, the extreme drought threatens both people and nature on the Altiplano. The Altiplano is warming faster than the global average, and weather extremes such as prolonged droughts and heavy rains with flooding further burden the region. Due to the climate crisis, internal migration is on the rise in the Altiplano region. The number of climate refugees is increasing worldwide. In the past ten years, 220 million people have been forced to flee within their countries due to climate-related disasters.
Der Klimawandel hat extreme Auswirkungen auf die Anden-Region. Nicht nur das Abschmelzen der Gletscher (der Chacaltaya-Gletscher in Bolivien ist bereits komplett verschwunden), sondern vor allem die extreme Trockenheit bedroht Mensch und Natur im Altiplano. Der Altiplano erwärmt sich stärker als der globale Durchschnitt, und Wetterextreme wie lange Dürreperioden und starke Regenfälle mit Überschwemmungen belasten die Region zusätzlich. Aufgrund der Klimakrise steigt die Binnenmigration in der Altiplano-Region. Die Zahl der Klimaflüchtlinge steigt weltweit. In den letzten zehn Jahren sind 220 Millionen Menschen durch klimabedingte Katastrophen zur Flucht innerhalb der Landesgrenzen gezwungen worden.
The migration route across the Altiplano High Plateau
At 3,600 meters on the Altiplano, refugees are exposed to extreme conditions for which many are unprepared. Since 2021, officially 27 people have died on this route – many from hypothermia. It is believed that the actual death toll is much higher. As the number of people leaving their country increases, so does the need, as clean water and food are lacking along the migration routes.
I wipe away my tears and try to find hope in writing. I take solace in the fact that there are people who make such films and move me to engage with this strange world we live in. I think that is one of the greatest strengths of the film. “Cinema is a tonic for the soul,” says Tilda Swinton in her speech receiving this year’s Berlinale Honorary Bear. Perhaps not a medicine, not a cure, but cinema can touch us, inspire us, and provoke personal reflection. This always leads me back to writing. The experience of a film—accepting it, describing it, and conveying it in a new form, whether as prose or poetry—I find, every time, to be an enriching opportunity for reflection.
One image from “Atardecer en América” has particularly stayed with me: a herd of llamas moving from right to left across the Altiplano, and for a moment, it seems as if they trace migration flows, as if they were calling out: “We too are on the move, we must soon continue. It will get warmer.”
leere legt sich über die hochebene
wir sehen die schönheit der landschaft und sehen sie nicht
warten bis es dunkelt
und es uns weiter zieht
wir tragen die bewegungen der lamas in uns
bis wir zurück nach hause können
.
el vacío se extiende sobre la meseta
vemos la belleza del paisaje y no la vemos
esperar hasta que oscurezca
y nos tire adelante
llevamos los movimientos de las llamas dentro de nosotros
hasta poder volver a casa
Critique and poem by Liv Thastum
Spanish translation: Felix Ernst
Sources
Kirche in Chile zeigt Film über Notlage der Migranten – Blickpunkt Lateinamerika
Leerstehende Häuser: Klimakrise und Migration im Altiplano | Informationsstelle Peru e.V.
Klimawandelanpassungen der Landwirtschaft im Hochland der Anden – gs-klimawandelanpassung
Venezuelan refugee crisis – Wikipedia
Venezuela Krise: Zweitgrößte Flüchtbewegung weltweit
