Lapü

Doris is a young Wayuú woman who dreams of a reunion with her deceased cousin. After seeking advice from her grandmother, she learns that this vision obligates her to exhume her cousin’s remains from her grave and lead a “second burial,” which will allow her to rest in peace. Mirroring the Wayuú’s traditional belief that the dead coexist with the living, filmmakers César Alejandro Jaimes and Juan Pablo Polanco present an eerie, dreamlike, and beautifully framed examination of tradition, ritual, and superstition.

“The Wayúu culture’s presence in cinema is vital for the way in which we relate to them, especially in Colombia. However, it’s not just about representing this culture on the screen, but about making its people part in the creation of the film. For us it is important not to generalize a paternalistic relationship of “we” who film “them.” In Colombia, the limited state presence in the region is cause for a situation in which much of the country ignores it. Globally, representation gives us the tools to define our own cultural identity when examining how different, but also how similar the Wayúu are to our own cultures.”—César Alejandro Jaimes and Juan Pablo Polanco