Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Utama: Our Home is Dying

28/01/2022

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.
LINK: https://www.sundance.org/blogs/utama-our-home-is-dying-2/...
See more stories from sundance

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

04/06/2026

Sony's New PTZ Cameras Deliver 4K 60p; New STARVIS Sensor Meets Low-Light Demands

Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...

04/06/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Alex Albert, Texas A&M University

This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...

04/06/2026

USGA Brings AI Recaps, 3D Range Tracking, and Predictive Shot Tracing to U.S. Womens Open

For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...

04/06/2026

Panasonic PT-RQ45 Projectors Power Lille Video Mapping Festival Opera House Installation

Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...

04/06/2026

Bitmovin and Akamai Support NRJ Groups Deployment of Akamai Adaptive Media Player 2

Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...

04/06/2026

Telestream to Exhibit at InfoComm 2026 with Live Production and Media Workflow Demonstrations

Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...

04/06/2026

Sony Announces RIALTO 65 Image Sensor Block for VENICE 2, Targeting 2027 Release

Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...

04/06/2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America to Exhibit 4K and Remote Production Solutions at InfoComm 2026

KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...

04/06/2026

Bell Media to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches Across TSN, RDS, and Streaming Platforms

Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...

04/06/2026

MASV Case Study: How MASV Reduced Miami HEAT's Road Game Video Transfer Times by 85%

The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...

04/06/2026

MASV Outlines Seven-Step Sports Analytics Workflow, Highlights File Transfer as Key Bottleneck

MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...

04/06/2026

NESN Appoints Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering

NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...

04/06/2026

Sports Broadcaster, Executive, and Author David J. Halberstam Dies

David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer. Over his l...

04/06/2026

Grass Valleys Ben Dolinky on Offering Teachable Technology to College Students Across the Country

Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...

04/06/2026

Prime Video Caps First NBA Season With Sports Emmy Win, Carries In-House Production Into WNBA Campaign

California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...

04/06/2026

TikTok and Sundance Collab Launch Micro-Series Storytelling Program

New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...

04/06/2026

Celemony announce Tonalic ARA support for Cubase & Nuendo

Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...

04/06/2026

GearExpo UK: Microphone Update

Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...

04/06/2026

Positive Grid launch Reactor amp range

Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...

04/06/2026

Is Your Job Making You Work this June?

Is Your Job Making You Work this June? 4 June, 2026 Media releases SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...

04/06/2026

Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content

Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content 4 June, 2026 Media releases SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...

04/06/2026

TiVo: TV Viewing Hits Post-Pandemic Peak

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Bitmovin and Akamai Support NRJ Group to Deploy Next Gene...

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...

04/06/2026

American Underground Opens at American Tobacco Campus, Completing a 16-Year Full-Circle Story

American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...

04/06/2026

Nielsen: Thunder Rolls as NBA's Most-Watched Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

AI Drives Lenovo's 2026 FIFA World Cup Broadcast Plans

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

ATSC Conference Looks Beyond Traditional TV for 3.0 Success

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

ATSC Awards Highest Technical Honor to Julia Kenyon

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Lumine Group to Acquire Synamedias Video Network Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

BFOA Launches 5th Annual Giving Day

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

Hemisphere Media Group Brings WAPA+ Fast Channel to Prime Video

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

APTS to Hold June 4 'Protect My Public Media Day'

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

04/06/2026

NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI

NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI Brie Clayton June 3, 2026 0 Comments RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...

04/06/2026

Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade

Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade Brie Clayton June 3, 2026 0 Comments Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...

04/06/2026

Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients

Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients Brie Clayton June 3, 2026 0 Comments Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...

04/06/2026

St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume

St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...

04/06/2026

'All the Truth in My Lies' Coming to Netflix on August 28

Back to All News All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28 Entertainment 04 June 2026 GlobalSpain Link copied to clipboard Download the imag...

04/06/2026

Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at the Enders TMT Leaders Live 2026 Conference

Back to All News Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...

04/06/2026

Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition' Game, Exclusively on Netflix Games June 11

Back to All News Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...

04/06/2026

Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn

Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News LinkedIn Corporate Communications Share LinkedIn Facebook ...

04/06/2026

Culture and family at the centre of new RT travel series

BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...

04/06/2026

Forecast: Fun Ahead - 18 Games Join in June to Stream on GeForce NOW

June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming. GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...

03/06/2026

SES Launches Multi-Orbit Satellite Inflight Connectivity on Viva Airlines

SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...

03/06/2026

CFP, ESPN, and TNT Sports Announce 2026-27 College Football Playoff Broadcast Schedule

The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...

03/06/2026

RED Digital Cinema to Host Panels and Demos at Cine Gear Expo 2026

RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations. P...

03/06/2026

Roku Launches Soccer Zone for FIFA World Cup 2026

Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...