Best Bolivian drama movies

Perfidy (2009)

Enigmatic and silent Gus arrives in a city in upstate New York, to a hotel where he is staying for a day, while developing meticulous grooming and cleaning routines and expect a phone call that can change your life.

I Miss You (2019)

Following his son Gabriel’s death, Jorge travels from conservative Bolivia to New York City to confront Gabriel’s boyfriend Sebastian. While the two battle over Jorge’s inability to accept his son, Sebastian channels his grief into a bold new play in honor of his lost love, in which Gabriel’s inner turmoil is transformed into an eye-popping gay fantasia.

Unicorn (2014)

A young German/Bolivian Mennonite risks his life to escape his strict religious community to find love and freedom in the city.

Wara Wara (1930)

Set in the 16th century, a peaceful Inca community is massacred by a group of conquistadors, and the survivors including Wara Wara flee into the mountains. Later, Wara Wara is assaulted by two Spanish soldiers, and rescued by a conquistador with a noble heart. The two fall in love, but are confronted with the mutual hatred between their peoples. Sentenced to death, they escape, and live happily ever after.

Søren (2018)

Paloma and Amaru have an almost perfect relationship – until Søren appears and turns everything upside down.

Maleficarum (2011)

Maria Francisca, a wealthy young heiress and her friend Mariana De Castro, a young protestant widow, are accused of witchcraft and taken before the Inquisition of Lima, Peru .

Olalla (2015)

Based in the story by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Olalla" tells the story of a gothic and decadent family of genetic vampires who need human blood to survive, and where incest is the only way to maintain the family line.

The Courage of the People (1971)

A documentary reenactment of the government-ordered massacre of striking tin miners and their families at the Siglo XX Mines in 1967 in Bolivia.

The Principal Enemy (1974)

A guerrilla group arrives in an indigenous community of the Peruvian sierra with the intention of recruiting volunteers.

Desconexión (2011)

A short story of a man who accidentally loses his cellphone and is found by a person that will not return it and is unaware of the damage he could cause.

Sun Stone Water (2016)

Sun Water Stone is an autobiographical movie about family fragmentation that resorts to different recording formats which formally intertwine, connect, merge and reconcile one with another.

Utama (2022)

In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.

Southern District (2009)

In La Paz -as opposed to many other cities- the rich live below, which is the Southern District. Life goes on without major mishaps in a large house surrounded by a beautiful garden. It is a wonderful world, a great bubble of comfort, where different personal spheres coexist: the mother, along with her three children and the Aymara inhabitants of the house. The drama surfaces slowly, without narrative ploys, observing day-to-day activities until internal and external forces make the bubble burst. The film relates the story of the final days of an upper-class family, at a time when the country is undergoing social changes.

The Secret Nation (1989)

In this Bolivian story, a man remembers his life while on a journey which will help him expiate his sins and which will result in his death. The focus on the story is on a man who has betrayed everyone he knows. He is planning to perform an ancient ritual dance which will end with his life being taken. He journeys from where he was living back to the village where most of the people he wronged still live. As he journeys, carrying his distinctive dance costume, his story is told in flashbacks. Once he gets there, he gets involved in the affairs of the villagers once more.

Wangdrak's Rain Boots (2018)

It’s the rainy season in the Tibetan highlands. It’s good for the crops, but bad for Wangdrak. He’s the only boy in his village who doesn’t own a pair of rain boots – and the other children tease him about it. His father has no money to buy any boots, plus he has other worries: there’s a dispute among the farmers. Secretly, his mother swaps a goat skin for a new pair of light blue boots. But when Wangdrak proudly wears them to school the next day, the children laugh at him again because it has stopped raining and the sun is shining. At least Wangdrak can count on his best friend Lhamo. Set in the vast mountains of Tibet this film affectionately portrays the story of a young boy’s dreams which are bound by the traditional structures of rural life.

Forgotten (2014)

José, a Bolivian retired general, is lying on his deathbed after a heart attack. Tormented by memories of his involvement in Operation Condor and invaded by deep remorse, he decides to tell his only son his biggest secrets in search of redemption.

Battlefield (2011)

Due to social unrest in the streets of La Paz (Bolivia), the owner of a modest beauty salon in a suburb of the city and her family, are forced to spend a few days together trapped inside with two clients. As the hours go by,petty fights between the five of them will make the coexistence in the confined space insufferable, turning the beauty salon into an unexpected battlefield.

And So It Is (1966)

While her husband is on his way to the market, a peasant woman is raped and murdered. Her widower carefully plans his revenge.

The Dog Thief (2024)

Martín is a 13-year-old orphan shoeshine boy from La Paz, Bolivia, who has lived his entire life in the streets with the hope and desire to find his father. Driven by this desire and his imagination, Martin begins to suspect that one of his best clients is his father; Mr Novoa, a lonely tailor whose only emotional bond is his dog, Astor, a fine German shepherd whom he cares for like a son.

The River (2018)

An introvert city teenager is sent to his father's limber ranch. While trying to figure out his place as the son of the boss he finds himself in a world packed with naturalized violence.

Aymara Heart (1925)

An Aymara woman strugges against accusations that she is unfaithful to her husband.

98 Seconds Without Shadow (2021)

Genoveva, 16, lives in a small Bolivian shithole of a town in the 80´s. Her obsession is time. For how long it takes an ant to cross a leaf from one side to the other or the time it takes for a glass of water to fill. In the loneliness of her adolescent days, her adolescent hours, her adolescent minutes, Geno tries to survive the nuns at school, her hostile classmates, her hopeless parents, and men with guns.

El atraco (2004)

The Silent Holy Stones (2005)

A young Tibetan monk goes back home for the New Year's celebrations. Fascinated by television, he wants to bring his family's television to the monastery to show it to his master.

The Great Movement (2022)

A symphony of the city in the heights, the illness of a worker, the nightmare and his redemption.

Chuquiago (1977)

Racial, social and cultural aspects of La Paz (called Chuquiago by the Aymaras) seen through four stories.

Eugenia (2017)

Eugenia, a young Bolivian middle-class woman, decides to separate from her husband, leave her job and move to her father's house in another city. She wants to start a different life. As time goes by she gets disappointed with her surrounding environment until one day she receives a notice that will put her long-awaited independence at risk.

Land Without Evil: Ivy Maraey (2013)

A filmmaker and a Guarani Indian travel from La Paz to Bolivia’s swamps, exploring Guarani culture, ancient knowledge, and identity.

To Hear the Birds Singing (1995)

Bolivian drama that serves as a plea for tolerance of cultural diversity in that country.

The Visitor (2022)

An ex-convict returns home in search of a new life and a chance to reconnect with his estranged young daughter, only to be met with resistance from his father-in-law - an influential pastor in the Evangelical community in town.