Gardens of the Night (2008)

When discussing diversity in film, it can be tempting to mistake the mere presence of diversity for meaningful representation. All too often, however, films cast members of underrepresented groups with no real intention of telling their stories. For example, films that aim to criticize eurocentrism and colonialism often inadvertently perpetuate eurocentrism by placing the colonizer at the center of the narrative.

This hypocrisy appears in Icíar Bollaín’s 2010 film También la Iluvia, also known by its English title Even the Rain, the story of an idealistic director and his ruthlessly practical producer attempting to make an anti-colonial film about Columbus. They shoot the film in Bolivia and cast Indigenous (specifically Quechua) people as extras to save money, but growing protests against the privatization of water soon disrupt filming. The film portrays the Quechua’s exploitation at the hands of both the Bolivian government and the Spanish filmmakers. It also engages in the same exploitive patterns that it claims to condemn. While También la Iluvia attempts to critique colonialist portrayals of Indigenous people, it ultimately repeats colonialist narratives by centering Spanish characters and relegating Quechua characters to a supplementary status.