During the protests against the government of Dina Boluarte, doctor Marco Samillan (31) died after receiving two gunshot wounds. The testimony of his sister, Milagros, is part of the documentary Uyariythe film by Javier Corcuera that addresses the repression in Juliaca and reminds us of impunity. “They continue to fight. They have given us a lesson in dignity throughout the entire shoot,” said director of photography Mariano Agudo when accepting the APRECI Award for best Peruvian film.
YOU CAN SEE: Peruvian cinema: they launch more schedules for ‘Uyariy’ and the public responds with full theaters
On Friday, Milagros Samillán took the stage of the French Alliance Theater with the filmmaker. “I am excited and grateful to the director and the entire team. Many times we are a country that does not want to listen to the people,” she said before showing the Peruvian flag that they took to the marches. “We are grateful to the Peruvian people who have made it possible for me not to be censored. On January 9, they took lives. Among them, they took my brother from me. My brother had gone out to help the wounded. With me I carry the flag that appears in the documentary. It has the blood of the people of Juliaca and the survivors. This flag shows the massacre.”
The journey of Uyariy (Hear)
The next premiere of the documentary will be in March, at the Malaga Film Festival, in Spain. However, as has happened with other notable productions, its time on the billboard may not have exceeded the week of exhibition. It was the first Peruvian film of the year affected by the programming of the multiplexes: with only six theaters and with afternoon schedules. The demands from the audiovisual sector did not take long, but the public also demanded to see the tape that recorded the testimonies of the victims of repression.
“I believe that it has been a phenomenon and that the credit has not really gone to the production company but to civil society, to the people, to the indignation of the population when they saw that it was dropped from the billboard and without any argument. So, that reaction made it possible for it to return to theaters and for the first days to be filled,” Mariano Agudo responded to us after the award ceremony.
2025 was a year of documentaries (the only fiction that competed was Punku). It is difficult to choose just one among Uyariy, Simi Rune, The memory of butterflies and The night came which won the award for best documentary. In any case, like the others, Corcuera’s film once again focuses on the importance of recording the history of a country or reflecting society. That’s more than watching movies as entertainment.
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Mariano, evidently, in this context one could believe that Uyariy would receive few rooms. It happened with The night came and other award-winning films. What reading do you give it?
Of course, it doesn’t just happen to Uyariy. It really happens to documentary cinema in general, because it is never comfortable. It has to make you think and the production mechanisms themselves are not the traditional ones of fiction cinema. Uyariy It is a documentary film that is very connected to a very recent tragedy, because it is a massacre of just three years, for which there is absolute impunity. So, it has been connecting with that collective indignation.
Miracles, you are still seeking justice. What does it mean for this fight that Uyariy win prizes?
It is exciting because it means remembering our surviving brothers and knowing that many more people will know about what happened and that it will not go unpunished. We have come to Lima more than eight times and we are going to do it again because the State owes us justice. They have changed our lives forever. We have our survivors, our orphans, the widows who are mom and dad today. This award was necessary to once again encourage families and tell us that justice can be found.
How does this government continue to turn its back on them?
For us it remains the same, they only changed their name and gender, impunity continues. Rospigliosi continues to call us terrorists and rioters. What we want are comprehensive reparations for survivors. If the State asks for forgiveness, it has to punish those responsible, those who shot, those who gave the order to go to jail. That is the best forgiveness that family members can receive.
–How would you summarize what cinema has done in this case?
They have listened to us and they have been our voices. And that is going to cross the borders of our country.
(The author of this note voted in the APRECI Awards)
