Movie review: ‘Altiplano’

When writers-directors Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth went to the frozen steppes of Mongolia for their prize-winning film “Khadak” they already had in mind another remote locale for their follow-up: a Peruvian village high in the Andes called Altiplano. Inspired by an actual 2000 incident in such a village, where its indigenous population was blinded and sickened by a mercury spillage caused by mining, their new feature titled “Altiplano” sees Brosens and Woodworth take a bold and unpredictable approach in calling attention to an environmental catastrophe.

The story follows Max (Olivier Gourmet, a Dardenne brothers favorite), a Belgian ophthalmologist who travels to Peru to work in a clinic near the village of Turubamba. Blindness and other maladies are rapidly escalating in Turubamba, and the villagers are enraged that Max and his colleagues can do little to help. The locals see the doctors as enemies who are aligned with the mining interests whose trucks constantly rumble through their village.

In majestic, stately fashion, Brosens and Woodworth celebrate the profound faith of the villagers, whose devout Catholicism is intermixed seamlessly with their ancient native religion that centers on the worship of Mother Earth. The filmmakers suggest that a soaring spiritual path not only offers the possibility of redemption but also strength in the face of government indifference to industrial pollution and its effects on indigenous peoples.

— Kevin Thomas

“Altiplano.” Unrated. In Spanish, Quechua, English, French and Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes. At Laemmle’s Music Hall, Beverly Hills.