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‘Yana-Wara’ Review: Timely Tale of a Young Indigenous Woman Wronged Is Stunted by Its Performances
The mystical and the mundane commingle in Peru’s gorgeous-looking if otherwise stilted Oscar submission, completed after the director’s death.
By the time he leaves her in the care of the local school where he hopes she’ll blossom, he has to contend with the fact that her teacher Santiago (José D. Calisaya) abuses his position to take advantage of her. The Andean landscape, devoid of its natural greenery, is turned here into an alienating backdrop that makes “Yana-Wara” at times look like a horror film where lurking evil can be found in both caves and in men’s lustful gazes. The murky ethical questions “Yana-Wara” grapples with (especially as it sidelines its central female character, intentionally obscuring if not outright ignoring her interiority) would be more intriguing and fleshed out if the Catacoras’ film had stronger performers.
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