Cinema Mentiré presents the UK premiere of Chaco.

Set in 1934, during the Chaco War fought between Bolivia and Paraguay, this spare historical drama follows a small regiment made up of Aymara and Quechua Indigenous soldiers commanded by a retired, gruff German officer fighting for the Bolivian Army. The troop is in a limbo, looking fruitlessly for the enemy, and wandering through the hostile, semi-arid lowlands in extreme weather. Isolation, despair and hunger grow with every day, every hellish march and hastily erected camp. Pitched somewhere between the bone-dry absurdism of Lucrecia Martel’s Zama and the minimalist drone of Lisandro Alonso’s Los muertos, and inspired by the experiences of his grandfather, director Diego Mondaca’s debut feature is a powerful meditation on the futility and absurdity of war.

The screening will be introduced by the Cinema Mentiré team.

This film is part of Cinema Mentiré's season of recent Bolivian films in partnership with The Garden Cinema - Echoes and Horizons: Contemporary Bolivian Cinema.