Galway Film Society

Even The Rain

Gael García Bernal stars as film director Sebastian who, along with his hard-nosed producer Costa (Luis Tosar), sets out to make a revisionist drama about the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Costa has decided to shoot in Bolivia, because it’s the cheapest place in South America. Sebastian casts a local man, Daniel, as the Taíno chieftain who led a rebellion against the Spaniards. Unbeknownst to the director, Daniel is leading his community’s demonstrations against the government’s decision to privatise water. As the filming progresses, the two stories - the 1512 rebellion and the twenty-first-century riots - cleverly serve to underline the impact of colonialism on the New World and the continuing exploitation of its resources by outsiders. This engrossing and multi-layered film-within-a-film is scripted by Ken Loach-collaborator Paul Laverty.