Cochabamba, a city in the center of Bolivia found itself in the middle of the impossible in late 1999 and early 2000, fighting over a resource that is supposedly unlimited; water. In Icíar Bollaín’s 2010 film, Even the Rain, Bollaín took an outsider’s approach to the reactions of the water wars, covering the tragedy from an upper-class Spaniard’s point of view. The underlying racial themes of symbolic ethnocentrism and despotism in poverty-stricken countries is prevalent in the film, coming to life as the story of Columbus and his tyrannical actions are paralleled to the ongoing war. However, regardless of race, the issues presented are completely relevant to today’s world, not just limiting itself to being a historical piece. In a time of social resistance against the depletion of basic human resources, the Cochabamba water wars were simply precursors to the oil and civil wars that have broken out as of recently in countries such as Syria and Sudan. Bollaín’s film calls out humanity’s inherent ignorance to the world around them by creating characters that represent the different actions of humans in relation to a foreign crisis.
So easy it is for someone to simply turn a blind eye to the problems that occur in the world. With only fifteen minutes left in the film, there comes a problem that puts to the test the conscience of the actors. Daniel and his daughter both go missing, both of whom were actors in the Columbus film, only the daughter is found out to be severely hurt and potentially dying from an injury during a rebellion (Bollaín 2010). Daniel’s wife desperately begs, choking back her tears, through frantic speech to Costas (one of the film production’s managers) to save her daughter. There is a split between the decisions of the team who is late to their flight back home. Costas, representing the people who volunteer to help, leaves his team to go straight into the war zone to save Daniel’s daughter. Sebastian (the onscreen film director) and the actor who portrays Columbus, though they both leave with the team initially, stay behind rather than boarding the plane. They represent the people that wish to help, but never find the confidence to actually provide aid during the war, rather their aid comes in the aftermath, as the actor offers his drink to the rebellion prisoners. Lastly, the rest of the team that parts ways with the three men represent the people who wish to remain ignorant to the cause, hoping that the problem will find its own solution. Bollaín defines the three types of people, putting emphasis on Costas’ heroic actions. The film team that thought only of their own lives appeared to be selfish, but so do the people in the real world that do nothing to help. The film attempts to make people realize that no matter how you are connected to a crisis, if one is even connected at all, as was seen with the Spanish characters, it is better to help than to ignore. Ignorance causes nothing but death and only hinders the outcome.
The idea of a totalitarian government is not a new phenomenon, it is also something that was not dissolved in second world war. It is a concept that has woven its way into the timeline of mankind. Unfortunately, countries are still at risk of being taken advantage of at any point, despite the “progressive” time we seem to be living in. Bollaín makes a statement with her film that history is doomed to repeat itself. The water wars were the twenty-first century French Revolution, it was also an embodiment of a modern American Revolution. The structure of the wars, if stripped down to a broad foundation, can be outlined as a government that inflated prices for an unavoidable substance (tea, bread, and water) and a population of people (America, France, and Bolivia) that decided to come together to end the tyranny. The water wars proved that events, such that as corrupt governments and revolutions, are still prevalent and are not subject to underdeveloped countries. The people that do get involved in protecting the human rights of foreign countries are the people that make a difference. Without aid, some revolutions may never reach their object, some are doomed to live in the same intolerable conditions.