Las Arenas y el Hombre

Illustrates the life of Saturnino Huillca, a peasant union leader, and the motivations that lead the Quechua peasantry to undertake the struggle for their social activists. The events that came to constitute a force of pressure that moved the country and made it see the importance of carrying out the agrarian reform.

A young man inherits a broken down estate at the edge of the Peruvian desert, with no explanation about the former owners or what had become of the once thriving house.

Colored cotton was already being cultivated in Peru since the pre-ceramic era, that is, 4,500 years ago, and was the basis of the textile development of pre-Hispanic cultures.

For three months of the year, from August to October, vast areas of the coastal desert—Lachay, Chilca, and Atocongo—transform into a beautiful and colorful landscape. The fog that rolls in from the sea makes this transformation possible.

Waru Waru is the name given by the inhabitants of the Puno highlands to an ancient agricultural technique that allows them to make use of the vast flood-prone plains. By raising the land into large ridges and using dikes, canals, and drainage systems, they are able to create favorable conditions for farming.

The Peruvian sea, due to the sediments carried by rivers flowing down from the Andes, is very rich in mineral nutrients that serve as food for microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton. These organisms are the first link in the food chain.

This film, shot through a microscope, reveals one of the most surprising aspects of marine life: embryonic development. We observe the development of the silverside and the squid.

In the plains of the Azángaro province, on the Peruvian altiplano, one can observe the traces of a very ancient and complex technique. These are the Q’ochas; from natural depressions, a complex and intricate system of canals and dikes is constructed, creating agricultural conditions in this inhospitable region.

In the Chincha Valley, the historic center of slavery in Peru, a group of children discover the history of their race through music and an elderly villager.

The ancient Inca stone citadel of Machu Picchu is home to a great variety of flowers; in orchids alone, there are several dozen species.

In the department of San Martín, in the high jungle, live the Lamista natives. The film deals with the coexistence of the Lamista culture with the mestizo culture and the problems that this proximity generates.

In Chulucanas, a small town on the northern coast of Peru, a group of young ceramicists studies and revives techniques from the ancient Vicús, Mochica, and Chimú cultures.

The loss of the carmine dyeing technique, which reached great development during the Inca era.

In Satipo, in the jungle region of Junín, live the Asháninka, an ancestral ethnic group of the Upper Amazon. Surrounded by the encroaching civilization of the white man, they are living the final days of their original culture, which is rooted in harmony with nature.

Tracking the Rímac River, which originates in the Andean snow-capped mountains at 5,000 meters above sea level and runs for 125 kilometers before emptying into the Pacific Ocean, crossing a wide range of ecosystems found throughout Peru’s diverse geography, and highlighting its influence on both human life and nature along its entire course.

In Simbilá, on the northern coast of Peru, families of potters continue to preserve millenia-old traditions. With a wooden paddle and a stone, they mold clay into everyday objects for contemporary life.