by Katie Small
They have taught you nothing. Do you know how a condor dies, Clever? When he feels that he's not useful anymore. When he can't fly. When he feels weak When he feels that way, he goes to the top of the mountain. Then folds back his wings, picks up his legs, and lets himself fall, straight to a rock, and dies from that moment a new cycle begins.
Condors are sacred within South American culture, and yet they are critically endangered. Virginio's words to his grandson Clever are not only prophetic within Utama, but have wider implications for the world beyond the family's ancestral homelands of the Bolivian Atacama desert.
Writer-director Alejandro Loayza Grisi's achingly beautiful feature debut is a meditation on legacy, loss, and change. Encapsulated in his portrait of pastoral Bolivian life is an urgent message on behalf of a planet whose climate is shifting at an increasingly unnatural pace, a plea for the world we leave behind for future generations to inherit.
Virginio and his wife, Sisa, live a humble but antiquated life in the cracked, dry land of the Altiplano, grazing their llamas while maintaining a tenuous connection to their Quechuan traditions and language. Along with what is left of their village, they struggle to obtain food and water amid the arid landscape scorched by drought. A visit from their grandson Clever brings up long-buried resentments within the family.
Clever tries to convince his grandparents to return with him to the city, where they can seek much-needed medical attention for Virginio, who has a bad cough, but they stubbornly refuse. Their way of life is all they know; from Clever's perspective, the resiliency that has kept them alive in a harsh desert also makes them obstinate and hostile to change. From their perspective, an awareness of life's cycles and the ability to read the signs has been lost in the generational divide.
A sacred mountain, poetic fables, and the cyclical nature of being make up the unforgettable world within Utama, which translates to our home. The vibrant colors of Quechuan textiles contrast with the muted natural landscape, whose bright sunny skies and desolate desert village create a striking sense of timeless expansiveness.
With a cinematic score that masterfully wields silence to encourage reflection, Utama is subtly poignant. Loayza Grisi collaborated with his brother Santiago to make this film about their home country after working on a documentary on climate change in Bolivia. They traveled to the Atacama desert, where they hired actual villagers and ranchers to portray their characters.
In the post-premiere Q&A, Loayza Grisi emphasized that climate change inspired the project from beginning to end. One of the goals of the film was to show that there's a reality coming for us, it's very real and very close, and we're not paying attention. We're not receiving the messages it's amazing how we're ignoring it, he laments.
In the cities we're very comfortable, we go to supermarkets to buy food, we go to the kitchen and we have water, we can have a ten-minute shower and that's no problem, he says. But if you drive a couple of hours [in the country] you'll find people that are having problems as a consequence of climate change. If we don't do something quick, we're going to have a lot of people in the situation of Virginio and Sisa.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
At just 20 years old, Sean Melia from Summerhill Co. Meath has been revealed as the winner of Super Garden 2026. Sean is the youngest ever contestant and winner...
29/05/2026
Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal In a first for the field, all non-human primates given a new series of vaccines generated antibodies capabl...
by Katie Small
