Bolivian Álvaro Olmos Torrico brings his country to the big stage in The Condor Daughter, a tender and insightful look at not just one of Latin America’s least represented countries when it comes to high-profile movies, but the specific Quechua midwife circles. A movie this specific could, in the hands of a less talented filmmaker, feel exclusionary. Instead, The Condor Daughter is a story anyone can relate to, even if they’re not familiar with the setting or the language.
The movie follows Clara (Marisol Vallejos Montaño), a young woman living in the community of Totorani, in the Bolivian Andes. Her adoptive mother, Ana (María Magdalena Sanizo), has taught her the art of midwifery, including the Quechua songs that are believed to help bring babies into the world safely. But Clara, like many young women before her, isn’t interested in following her mother’s footsteps. Instead, she dreams of being a singer and figuring out what the world has to offer.
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Clara’s journey is mostly internal. And yet the movie flows beautifully thanks to an outstanding cast, composed mostly of non-professional actors from the region, plus the combination of breathtaking cinematography and very effective use of music. Nicolás Wong Díaz’s visuals make Bolivia, from its mountains to its cities, feel like another character. And the music, the one Clara loves, the one that keeps women safe and brings babies home, is both a way for Clara to express herself, to break away from her mother, and also a way home when we feel like we’re lost.
The movie took six years to make due to the extensive research of Quechua midwife circles that Olmos Torrico and his team did. It feels like it every second, even if we don’t know enough about the topic to know how truly faithful to reality the movie is. There’s just a sense that this story, that of Clara and her mother Ana, that of a community and a girl trying to find the balance between her family, her culture, and her dreams, is being told with not just respect, but care.
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Both a study about the importance of tradition, and a film that questions how those traditions, particularly Indigenous knowledge, can be mixed with modern ideas, The Condor Daughter might not be the kind of movie that scares you, makes you cry, or even leaves you thinking about any lofty ideas. But it is the kind of movie that will leave you feeling more connected with yourself and with your community than you ever have before.
The Condor Daughter might not be the most well-known movie to come out of TIFF, but it is certainly one worth watching. If you’re looking for an intimate deconstruction of adolescence and the push and pull that happens between the way things are and the way they can be, look no further. And if you find yourself learning about a community you didn’t know all that much about before watching this movie, you’ll be all the better for it.
The Condor Daughter streamed at the Toronto International Film Festival.
