Peruvian filmmaker Federico García Hurtado died yesterday at age 83. One of the South American country’s most prolific directors, he made 13 politically-inspired fiction and non-fiction films between 1972 and 2002, and he’s best known for his 1985 film Tupac Amaru.
Born in Cusco on September 29, 1937, he began his artistic career as a poet at a young age. He worked as a writer and journalist, and made his first documentary film, Kausachún Perú in 1972, followed by three short films: Socavón y tajo abierto (1973), Mil días (1973), El festín (1976). In 1977 he directes the docudrama Kuntur Wachana, a recreation of the 1950s uprising of the Huaran peasants against the hacienda owners, which led to the assassination of two union organizers, followed by creation of a union collective. The film won the Film Critics Award at the Moscow International Film Festival.
In 1984, García Hurtado directs his most well-known film, Tupac Amaru, about the Inca José Gabriel Tupac Amaru—played by actor Reynaldo Arenas—who in 1780, led workers, slaves and Indians into South America's first full-scale revolt against Spanish colonialism. The uprising was suppressed when the Bishop of Cusco—the Incan capital—provoked the defection of the Creole people. The powerful film depicts the failed rebellion from the point of view of its participants, who recount the story during the inquisition which follows Tupac's grisly execution in Cusco's central plaza. The martyred hero became a symbol of liberation in Latin America. Tupac Amaru screened in numerous international film festivals.
Other film credits include Laulico (1980), El caso Huayanay (1981), El socio de Dios (1987), La manzanita del diablo (1989), and La yunta brava (2000). His last film was the 2002 film El forastero, about a stranger who arrives in the Peruvian Andeas from a distant galaxy. He comes from an annihilated planet and has been sent in search of a habitable world where his civilization can settle. In the village he finds love and sex with a prostitute, a strange mixture of goodness and greed in the village major, and the beauty mystery of nature in a shaman.
In addition to his film work, García Hurtado published two books of poetry, two novels and essays. He is survived by his partner, writer Pilar Roca, six children, and various grandchildren.
