"This film received the first prize, "the gold Hugo" in Chicago's film festival, 1972" "Mirage" "With workers from the Mendiola ranch and pupils from Ocucaje school" "Songs by Daniel Alomia Robles and by anonymous Peruan authors from the 16th and 17th centuries" "d. p.:" "Mario Robles Godoy" "Written and directed by Armando Robles Godoy" "Where's Hernan?" "Tell me where Hernan is or I'll cut your ear off!" "Lay off her, mom, she's..." "Shut up, insolent brat, if you don't want me to kick your butt." "Where did he go?" "Come on, are you gonna tell me or not?" "What's happened now?" "This asshole decided to go play football right now!" "Are you finally going to tell me how he got out?" "Tell me how he got out and where before I beat you up!" "Come on, tell me how he got out if you don't want me to tear your ear off!" "Damn it, we can't start this day like that." "Hernan." "Hernan!" "Yes, teacher?" "Next week we're starting class and you still haven't registered." "We're leaving Ica, teacher." "Ah, that's true." "Where?" "Hurry up, Hernan." "Where are you going to study?" "I don't know," "My mom says I'll be registered the moment we arrive at Lima." "At this time of year?" "Hurry up, Hernan." "Goodbye, teacher." "Leave that for later, come help." "I'm comin' right away." "I want to check whether it spills water." "At this rate, we won't get finished and we'll have to stay another day." "We'll finish, we don't have that much to take." "Don't take it yet." "Get out of here." "Don't forget I still have to go bid farewell to Mr. Delureg, and on top of it all, This jerk, Hernan, has vanished, but I'll bring him back right away so you can kick his ass." "He'll be here soon." "No, what are you talking about?" "I'll bring him here in a minute." "Good morning." "Good morning, teacher." "Have you seen Hernan?" "No." "Obviously, no one ever sees him, he must be invisible," "He went to play football." "Yea, I already know, it's kind of a farewell game." "Farewell..." "Farewell..." "What's with you, teacher?" "I know nothing about motors." "What's the problem with this one?" "I'm checking whether it spills water." "Anyway, it'll survive the trip to Lima, I'll tighten it up afterwards." "You're leaving Today?" "Later, we must cruise the desert at night, otherwise it would explode in the heat of the day." "What will you do in Lima?" "Come on, take out the small one." "This picture there?" "Also that one." "careful, Rafiro has that." "Yea, yea." "Careful, son." "Careful!" "Don't push!" "Remove this kid, he's standing in the way, Playing and annoying." "Goodbye, Ica!" "Shut up, you stupid prick, and come help!" "Who's the running man?" "Who's the running man?" "Didn't you tell me you're leaving Ica today?" "They've told me last night." "Do you know where you're going to live?" "In Lima." "No, I meant the adress." "No." "Write me right away when you're settled in." "You're comin' with me right away, you wretch!" "Maria, please." "Forgive me, father Jorge, but this wretch was nowhere to be found." "Remember he's your son." "Otherwise, I'd kill him." "Playing football today..." "It's a farewell game." "What's this farewell game nonsense?" "He can play football in Lima." "You have to let him finish, Maria." "like hell he will.." "Let's go." "Let's make a deal." "Let him finish his game and then I'll take him home and help you pack." "Thank you very much for your help, father." "Damn it!" "I have to buy me a decent set of wrenches or a new truck." "What're you going to do in Lima?" "We still don't know," "But one of Maria's brothers is moving and leaving us his small house in Comas." "In Comas?" "yes, in the higher part of the city." "A small house in the higher part of Comas." "It won't be worse than this." "I don't understand." "Why the relocation?" "Yes, that I understand." "But I don't understand why you must move away." "Leave your riddles for the exams, teacher." "I wish it was a question out of an exam." "We're leaving because life here is shit, just like it is there, but it's different shit." "So that's all there is to it, you're replacing shit with excrement." "I don't know." "It was all Maria's idea, I don't know." "Write me, Gabriel, because I don't know either, but I want to know." "There must be some force, something that's causing all of this." "You mean the social security benefits?" "To hell with the social security benefits!" "Don't give me exam answers." "Write me, Gabriel, the moment you find the time to ask yourself some questions." "Questions..." "Questions..." "This damn truck is the one who has to give the answers." "You intend to continue as a truck driver?" "With this jalopy?" "I'll be content if it survives the trip." "So what will you do then?" "I dont know!" "I've already told you I don't know." "The engine's already ruined, the overheating it suffered during the grape harvest festival was the final blow." "Was it worth it?" "A puppy is a puppy." "Oh a wineless bottle!" "Oh wine that widowed of the bottle!" "When the dawn of the afternoon flamed fatally in five spirits." "Widowhood without bread or grime, finishing in hideous metalloids and in oral cells ending." "finishing in hideous metalloids and in oral cells ending." "oh my good friends, a cruel deceit, partial, piercing our truncated volatile, frolicful grief!" "The sublime, low perfection of the swine, gropes my customary melancholy!" "despicable sounding in dreams," "Despicable, coarse, inferior, bribed, lawful, thief lowering and groping what used to be my ideas!" "You and him and them and everyone nevertheless, at the same time entered into my shirt, into my shoulders wood, between my femurs, little sticks;" "you particularly, having influenced me;" "He, futile, reddened, with money, and they, winged drones of another weight." "Oh wineless bottle!" "oh wine the widower of this bottle!" "Oh always, never to find the never of so much always!" ""Oh botella sin vino" by Cesar Vallejo, Translated by Clayton Eshleman." "Who's the running man?" "Who's the running man?" "join, brothers, in the spirit of alms giving and resignation," "Come hear the word destined for those who seek truth and justice and find repentance and charity instead." "Leave the desert and come." "No one runs in the desert," "The desert is the immobile and final destination for the arrogant and the promiscuous." "The prophets heard god's voice in the desert for they were the chosen ones." "Woe to those sinners who flee to the desert in search of sin" "Because the blame will lie upon them and their children and upon the children of the children of their children and upon the children of the children of their children and upon the children of the children of their children and upon the children of the children of their children" "and upon the children of the children of their children..." "Juan Jose." "Juan Jose!" "Juan Jose!" "All's ready for tonight?" "We still need the donkeys." "I'll take care of that." "I'm leaving Ica." "When?" "We still don't know." "Where to?" "Lima." "Lima's far away." "The old man says we'll have to drive by night because the jalopy's engine heats up." "I'll visit you one of these days." "Why don't you come to Lima with us?" "I can't." "You live by yourself, Why can't you?" "I have responsibilities." "Which responsibilities?" "I'm the owner of this house." "Since when?" "Didn't I tell you?" "I inherited it." "Come." "Everything's in perfect order." "Here are my rights." "I'm a landowner, what do you think?" "And why do you bury it there?" "I'm a landowner of sand!" "I'm a landowner of sand!" "I'm a landowner of sand!" "I'm a landowner of sand and my reign is not of this world, but of another world, and at night we'll harvest the last grapes and we won't go to prison but to the market to sell them!" "Who's the running man?" "I don't want kids and women this time." "The harvest last year was a maze and it seemed like a pediatric clinic." "Many women have already been listed." "so take them off your list, case closed." "The sleeping beauty of the forest..." "At last." "Cold soup is harmful." "it swells your belly." "Queeny, just to let you know, the harvest starts tomorrow and I don't want sleep-walkers in this house." "Sleep-walkers walk by night with their eyes closed and all the rest wide open." "Do we have enough harvesters this year?" "Yes, don Francisco." "It looks like we'll have too many this year." "That just strengthens my arguement," "No women nor kids, and we'll put an end once and for all to the engorgement of grapes during the harvest." "It seems more like charity than a farm." "Did you calculate the quantity of grapes these scoundrels ate?" "No, don Francisco 1% at least." "That's called robbery and starting tomorrow it will end." "Will you come to the recruiting?" "Yea." "Have you swallowed your tongue?" "My mom used to call that the tweenage years." "When you least expect it I'll erase those pretensions of offended princess from your face." "Offended princess?" "Why offended?" "You shut your mouth, no one asked for your opinion." "Juan." "Yes, don Francisco?" "Have you eaten already?" "No, don Francisco." "Then go eat and next time don't just stand there without telling me whether you ate or not." "You summoned me." "So what?" "Don't you have dignity then?" "You being my worker doesn't make you a slave." "You just have to say:" Tell don Francisco I'm eating and I'll be there right away"." "Right away, got it?" "The "right away" is important, but it's also important you keep on eating." "Yes, don Francisco." "I want men by my side and not "shrimps"." "In this country there have always been more shrimps than men." "Hail to the holy orient brotherhood of the shrimps." "Try not to be stupid." "Under the slightest change of circumstnaces, the flash flood will rise and extinguish everything." "For a short moment, dad." "Then we'd bring god to the streets," "Everyone will pray and the situation will stay as it used to be." "Don't trust this alliance too much," "It's safer to keep the situation we have created." "But always combined with apostolic blessings, dad." "I don't get this thing about the blessings." "You always talk in a tangled way like a moron." "We live surounded by devoted people who need to pray and believe." "The gods always abide very far off, that's why we must provide them with subtitutes," "Not very divine or miraculous, but pretty as virgins." "You brother's trying to say that once you have the upper hand, you don't let go under any circumstance." "Tart and all the changes and reforms are nothing but a front for this biblical truth." "Everyone knows that." "Very few know it, the shrimps will never know it." "You have to make them think they own the world, that everything belongs to them," "That the injustice will end on the least expected day and they will inherit the earth." "We're thieves, that's what you should tell them, that all evils stems from us thieves, but that soon we'll be punished." "As long as they think that way and feel prisoners of injustice, they will keep on fighting to escape, but not stop being shrimps and that's the key to it all." "As long as they stay shrimps, you can allow any change they want, because nothing will actually change, but don't let them ever stop being shrimps, right, Juan?" "Can I go already, Don Francisco?" "Go, what are you standing there for?" "Go eat." "Grapes here!" "Grapes here!" "Straight from the vine, 5 Sol one kilo." "Listen, utnesils, pegs!" "Grapes here!" "Grapes here!" "5 sol one kilo." "Where did you get these fruits from?" "From the vine, father." "Which vine?" "There are vines all around here, father, this is a vine growing region." "I will denounce you as thieves." "Don't do that, father, out of christian charity and because you don't have proof." "It's not a question of proof, Juan Jose, don't play the fool," "You know perfectly well that theft is a crime and a sin." "We didn't steal, we harvested." "Take, father." "Yes, but in someone else's terrain." "Did you ask for permission?" "How do you know it's someone else's, father?" "All the terrain..." "All the terrains belong to someone else, father?" "Every terrain has an owner, Juan Jose." "You mustn't do what you've done," "It's forbidden by god and man and not because of a whim." "Life has to be based on moral and material grounds, do you understand that, Hernan?" "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?" "Shoeshine, father?" "Do you understand, Hernan?" "I'll shine your boots for free, that's all I can give you." "Ok, polish them but try to understand me." "It's very complicated, father." "There's nothing complicated about it," "There are good and bad things." "It's about doing the right things and avoiding the bad things." "I can't go on playing barefoot." "Alright, you want to be a footballer and for that you need a pair of shoes." "You can buy them with what you earn here." "I have to give all my earnings to my mom." "then ask her to buy them." "Father, you already know..." "Yes, I know, so ask me to buy them." "I don't want aims, father." "The only thing I want is a pair of shoes, now." "Down here!" "here. here!" "Goal!" "All the terrains belong to someone else and the football shoes are forbidden until humility and resignation will reward you in the next life and you could score goals against saint Peter with the aid of our fatherly god." "Don't mock me." "Hernan my son, you might never get to play in the first league but I tell you that soon you'll be in the forward line of the angels and the fouls Judas Iscariot will do against you can't prevail." "What's the meaning of "prevail"?" "I don't know, but it appears in all the sermons and don't interrupt me or I'll kick you out of the field." "You're nuts, Juan Jose." "Don't forget, Hernan, you have to play "clean" in this life in order to be elected in the team of the next life, and there you'll hear weeping and grinding teeth." "That's scary." "Don't worry, your sins will be forgiven if you behave well and show respect." "To whom?" "To everyone!" "The point here is to respect until you rot (till you've had it)!" "Who's the running man?" "Who's the running man?" "Name?" "Chicarlo de Bergala." "Age?" "46 years old." "Have you harvested before?" "Yes." "Do you know how to whistle?" "Yes." "Well, whistle." "Alright, next one." "Name?" "Armando Perez." "Age?" "38 years old." "Have you harvested before?" "Yes." "Do you know how to whistle?" "Yes." "Well, whistle." "Name?" "Hipolito Cordero." "Age?" "29 years old." "Have you harvested before?" "Yes." "Do you know how to whistle?" "Yes." "Well, whistle." "Alright, next one." "Name?" "Juan Camargo." "Age?" "2... 39 years old." "Have you harvested before?" "Yes." "Do you know how to whistle?" "Yes." "Well, whistle." "Alright, next one." "Name?" "Fortunato Aparcana." "Have you harvested before?" "Yes." "Do you know how to whistle?" "No." "Try to whistle." "Do you know how to whistle?" "I don't know." "Whistle." "I can't." "Enough, enough." "Very good." "It's not a concert precisely, but it's very good." "Now you will whistle with the same enthusiasm all the time while you're harvesting." "You can rest while taking the fruits to the vehicles, but in the vineyard I want everyone to whistle loud and without stopping." "Do you love music, don Francisco?" "I love my grapes to become wine, not to be eaten by you." "Now... if you can eat while whistling, no problem," "But he who stops whistling..." "Juan, fire him immediately." "Juan, tell them to stop whistling that." "Stop whistling." "Stop whistling." "Stop whistling!" "How many years have you lived here?" "15, but not in the same house." "15 years, and you just load all this on the truck and leave, leave like that." "Don't think I understand it, but it seems Maria does." "I should ask Maria." "If you start questioning her now ,teacher." "She'd send you to hell and you'd still know nothing." "Come eat, it's already past 15:00 and no one has eaten lunch yet." "Maria, the teacher wants you to explain to him why we're leaving." "Serve yourself, teacher." "Thanks." "Thank you, teacher, for helping us with the packing." "I would have liked to help you with other things." "I came here to teach 10 years ago, and every day it feels more like I'm in some sort of a campsite, an inn on the road to another place." "You say that because we're leaving, teacher?" "I say it because everyone's leaving." "But people also come from other places." "Of course, and they also have children and all that, but everyone leaves or thinks about leaving." "But you don't, teacher." "Yes, so as to teach the rest to leave?" "The thing is there's already nothing to do here, and if there's no work, the only choice but look for it elsewhere." "You can't live off odd jobs." "But you can't live on wandering about either." "There was a period in antiquity in which many nations had to move all the time in search of food for their cattle." "They were called nomads and had no cities nor fixed dwelling places." "They moved all the time from one place to another, without knowing it, they were slaves of their cattle." "Nothing was permanent or important to them apart from constantly finding a feeding ground for their cattle." "If they'd encounter a city or a village, beautiful as it may be, they'd destroy it so that the grass could grow." "Do you want some more, teacher?" "No, thanks." "It's not possible to live like that." "A man has a right to stop and say:" ""here I'll live, I'm staying here"." "I don't understand why you wander from one place to another" "Because there's no work, because there are no terrains, because there you may find something to do." "Life was not made for work, but for men." "You don't leave because you're free to leave nor because it occured to you to do it, but because you don't have a choice and that's wrong." "One has a right to create something, to build something he can afterwards love and protect, and for that he needs to stay a period of time on the land on which he lives." "That's the reason Cain killed Abel." "Good evening, can I come in?" "Go ahead, father, you're just in time for a bite." "Thanks, Maria, but in this heat I'd prefer a nice glass of water." "Just a little, father, otherwise it'll go to waste." "ok, but just a tiny bit." "Have a seat, father." "Thanks." "So you're leaving us?" "Yea, we're off the minute it starts to cool off," "Did you see the loaded truck outside?" "Yes, I saw the loaded truck." "Thanks." "You already know your new adress in Lima?" "Not yet." "Don't forget to write me the moment you get there." "Prof..." "Sorry, teacher." "Why didn't you tell us at school that Cain was right when he killed Abel?" "No one's right when killing." "We're dealing with a symbol, a representation." "Cain represents the farmer who loves the land and the permanence in one place." "Abel, on the other hand, is the shepherd, the nomad, the slave of the rams." "Yes, Hernan?" "Then why do they say god justified Abel?" "Stop harassing the teacher with questions, he's on holiday." "The questions during the holidays are worse, Maria because I raise them myself and there's no one to answer." "The bad thing about all this is that people have attributed many words to the mouth of god." "A little bit more, father?" "No, now its enough, I'll explode." "One never explodes, father." "that's the problem." "Well, tell me, what are you gonna do in Lima?" "What plans do you have?" "We don't have plans, but it's impossible to stay here." "It's all promises and promises and in the end everything remains the same." "At least Lima is big and there will be a place for everyone." "You intend to work with the truck, Gabriel?" "It has to get there first..." "Give me your plate, father." "Pick up these plates, Hernan." "So Hernan's the only one with specific plans." "Hell of a plan..." "Footbal is an activity just like any other, Maria." "I've heard there are players who earn very good wages." "Earning a living by kicking a ball with your feet?" "What's your answer to that, Hernan?" "Come on, defend yourself," "Explain your plans to your mother." "He rallied his men magnificently and the combat began." "He rallied his men magnificently and the combat began." "The patriots stormed the royalists with fury and wouldn't allow them to gather." "They stormed the royalists with fury and wouldn't allow them to gather." "Why don't you come in, Juan Jose?" "Come in and sit down." "Come on, Juan Jose, get in already." "Don't play hard to get, Juan Jose." "He doesn't want to." "Come in, Juan josesito." "Get in." "Get in, Juan Jose!" "Get in, Juan Jose!" "Mom, allow me to go say farewell to Juan Jose." "And I have to go, so I'll accompany you outside." "Maria, don't forget to write me." "Goodbye, father." "No goodbyes, The world is small and I'm sure we'll meet soon." "Never be discouraged and when you want to ask me something, anything, write me." "I'll come visit you whenever I can, after all Lima is not that far away." "Thanks." "It's alright you want to be a footbal player, but don't quit your studies." "Knowledge is a resource that will serve you for anything, one thing doesn't exclude the other." "Don't worry." "What do you know anout Juan Jose?" "Nothing, I'll go see if I can find him." "He's the one who should go to Lima." "he says he can't cause he's a landowner." "Ah, yea, his famous inheritance." "Is it true about his inheritance?" "What good is it to him?" "a ruined house, the vines eaten away by the desert and a sad story which no one exactly knows." "Did you know his parents?" "No, when I got here everything were legends and rumours already." "No one knows anything actually, except him of course." "It seems everything's been a tragedy." "In short, I've already told you no one knows anything and I think it's better that way." "The only real thing that remains is Juan jose." "Hernan, come play for a while." "Don't hang around here too long." "I'll play just a little while." "Goodbye, father." "Goodbye, Hernan, and good luck!" ""Dear son, I don't know what you look like," ""I don't even know if you exist and whether you or anyone will ever read this letter," ""but I have to write it to you because I've never talked to you," ""and I've also never spoken to anyone about you," ""not because I don't want to, but because life didn't allow me the time for it," ""it slipped from my hands when I still had so much to do and to love," ""and above all to love you, to watch you grow," ""to see your father through your eyes and bring him back to life through you," ""but it wasn't possible and now only this letter and you remain, Juan Jose." ""All this will become the past when you read these lines, if you'll read them one day." ""You will probably hear a thousand stories and legends" ""and may think harsh things about me and wouldn't want to forgive me," ""but it's not necessary that you forgive me just remember me." ""You'd change nothing with your forgiveness or your resentment," ""but by forgetting me you'll wipe me out forever" ""and I don't want to pass by like a beautiful, useless object." ""Come, Juan Jose"." "Since you're such a macho, let's see you find your way out of this." "If you hurry up, you could follow our traces before the wind erases them." "Juan Jose!" "Juan Jose!" "Juan Jose!" "Juan Jose!" "Juan Jose!" "Juan jose!" "Well, man..." "That's it." "I'm starting the car." "All aboard." "Well, bon voyage, Gabriel." "Bon voyage, Maria." "Good luck, Hernan." "Goodbye, teacher." "Be careful with your questions, teacher." "Hernan, sit beside your father." "I wanna go upstairs." "Come on, come on, come here, accomodate yourself already." "Didn't we leave anything behind?" "What could we leave behind?" "Goodbye, teacher." "Goodbye, teacher." "Goodbye, teacher, bye." "Translated by Gabi"