Peru has announced Jonatan Relayze's drama Rosa Chumbe as its Academy Award candidate in the foreign language film competition, looking to get its second nomination after Claudia Llosa earned the South American country's first and only nomination in 2009 for Milk of Sorrow / La teta asustada.
Set in Lima during the time of processions to commemorate the Lord of Miracles—the most widely venerated image of Christ in the city—the film follows Rosa Chumbe, a middle-aged police officer with both a gambling and drinking problem. She lives with her daughter, Sheyla, who has a little baby. One day, after a big fight between them, Sheyla steals her mother’s savings and storms out of the house, leaving her baby behind. Sheyla chooses to confront her own troubles alone, leaving Rosa to spend time with her grandson. This interaction provokes a change in Rosa’s hardened heart. But everything takes a wrong turn one night, and only a miracle can save her.
