The modern language department showed the movie “Even the Rain” as part of the Modern Languages Movie night that the department puts on twice a month. The event took place at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 in Lilly Hall Room 227.
“Even the Rain,” also known as “También la lluvia,” is a Spanish film about a Mexican director, Sebastián (Gael García Barnel), and executive producer Costa (Louis Tosar), who traveled to Bolivia to shoot a movie about Christopher Columbus exploration of the New World. Sebastián and Costa were filming in Bolivia during the same time that the 2000 Cochabamba water revolt was taking place. The producers ran into multiple problems, such as keeping their crew while also having to deal with their leading native actor, Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), being the protest leader.
The night began with an introduction to the film from Spanish professor Patricia Cabrera. Cabrera explained the showing of this particular film was, in a way, a movie within a movie about Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day, a holiday that was celebrated last month.
“So you’re going to say [that] we are going to recreate the life of Christopher Columbus, no, we are not. This is just a part of the story. We are going to have a movie within a movie,” Cabrera said. “There is something that my history teachers used to tell me—that we study history so that it will not be repeated, so that we know what happens, and we don’t make that same mistake again.”
Cabrera mentioned that the purpose of this particular movie was to give students a look at cultural differences, the things they would not know about in the native countries.
The movie was set up so that there could be dialogue before the movie, certain parts of the movie and after. Cabrera handed out a list of questions at the beginning of the event that asked for the audience’s opinion at the end of the movie. The movie was in Spanish, which gave students currently taking a Spanish course an opportunity to practice their comprehension, although there were English subtitles.
Junior communication major Ashtyn Brown felt the movie was very insightful.
“I thought that the movie was very powerful,” she said. “It put into perspective how blessed we are here in the United States and able to access something as simple as water. We have access to basic essentials here in the U.S., and I think it’s easily forgotten that there are still lives [people] out there who live in severe poverty and don’t know where their next meal or glass of water is going to come from.”
Cabrera ended the night by inviting all students to dedicate a portion of their lives to making a difference and being conscious of their resources, so that history is not repeated.
“I invite all of you, in your professions, in your future, when you’re out there working, to have all of this in mind,” Cabrera said. “You can change this. It’s in your hands. How are you going to handle a simple movie or a transaction or a business? Whenever you are dealing with people, go a little beyond. … How can we change this history and not let it happen again?”
