The drama The Southern House / La casa del sur, directed by Carina Oroza and Ramiro Fierro, has been selected as Bolivia’s candidate for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards. The film features an ensemble cast including David Moncada, Piti Campos, Alejandra Lanza, Cristian Mercado, and Arwen Delaine.
Inspired by a real event, the film centers on Anita, a disoriented and melancholic chef who returns to Bolivia thirty years after she and her mother were held captive on a ranch in Kantutani during the country’s last dictatorship. What begins as a practical trip to sell the house she has inherited soon turns into an emotional reckoning.
Once inside the long-abandoned home, Anita is confronted with echoes of the past she has tried to suppress. The house itself becomes an unsettling guide, offering fragments and traces that help her reconstruct the trauma she endured and illuminating the unresolved questions that continue to shape her life. As she delves deeper into these memories, Anita must decide not only how to move forward, but who she wants to be in the present.
Although Bolivia has submitted eighteen films to the International Feature category since 1995, the country has yet to secure its first nomination.
