Jorge leaves his family and his job as a motorcycle taxi driver in the suburbs of Lima to seek his fortune in the highest and most dangerous mine in the Peruvian Andes.
Isolated on a glacier, La Rinconada is “the city closest to the sky.” Thousands of seasonal workers flock here every year, drawn by the chance to make their fortune and in the hope of a better life.
From here, Jorge begins a journey of premonitions, where reality and imagination are inextricably linked and where the myth of wealth is built on sacrifice: occasionally, young miners disappear, because the gold belongs to the Devil, El Tio de la Mina demands sacrifices.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
The idea for the film began in a mining village in northern Tanzania. I was drawn to the metaphysical aspect of gold, a counterpoint to the macroeconomic implications of the gold market. La Rinconada seemed like the perfect setting to tell the story of the contemporary gold rush: a mining town located 5.300 meters above sea level in the Andes, a destination attracting crowds due to the global economic crisis.
Initially, I began researching and building a network of local people and experts with the help of Andrea Balice, an NGO worker with extensive experience in Peru. Then, Ladoyosca Romero, a cultural mediator, spent years working as a diplomat to ensure that reaching and filming in La Rinconada was possible and safe. Feliciano Meja, a poet who spent years building bookstores and teaching children outside of schools, in the suburbs of Lima and in Andean villages, introduced me to Jose Luis Nazario Campos, the film's lead actor. He was 19 at the time but had worked in the mines on and off since he was 13. Suddenly, he told me that the first thing he'd learned was: gold belongs to the devil. It was immediately clear to me that he would be the film's lead actor, and this phrase would be the destination of our journey.
Through him, I was able to enter the world of Peruvian mining, learn how it works, and understand the power of the mythopoetic universe that governs its dynamics, so much so that it becomes impossible to distinguish what is legend from what is real. Starting with the human sacrifice "Pagacho," a widespread and universally known yet unprovable ritual. This dimension, seemingly so distant from my daily life, has gradually become increasingly familiar: a metaphor for the relationship between people and wealth.
Trying to represent the cognitive process that José experienced when entering the mines, we developed a modern fable, on the border between reality and fiction, a journey of initiation and at the same time an impossible coming-of-age story.
A modern and traditional tale where dreams collide and merge with the material world, because Jose's story is at the same time the story of men and women who, throughout the centuries, have contributed to our wealth, dying anonymously and returning to the earth.
