Peruvian director Óscar Catacora died today at the age of 34 of undisclosed causes when he was filming his new film in the province of Collao, as announced by the production company Cine Aymara.
Born August 18, 1987 in Acora, the award-winning Catacora was a self-taught filmmaker. He began his career as an audiovisual producer at age 17 and went on to develop short and mid-length experimental films. The Path of The Pimp (2007), was his experimental middle length film in which he has also acted. He has a degree in Social Communication Sciences and has studies in Art in the specialty of Theatre of the National University of Puno Altiplano.
In 2017 he directed his acclaimed debut feature Wiñaypacha, which became the first Peruvian movie shot entirely in the Aymara language. The film tells the story of an elderly couple living in a remote part of the Andes faces the challenges of daily life with courage and determination. Like the protagonist couple in Ozu’s Tokyo Story, Willka and Phaxsi stoically carry the sadness of being forgotten by their long-absent son, and yearn for him to return home from the city. With magnificent cinematography, this landmark film delicately draws the emotional story of the filmmaker’s grandparents, who taught him Aymara when he was sent by his parents to live with them at age seven.
Wiñaypacha won the awards for Best First Film and Best Cinematography at the Guadalajara Film Festival, and played at numerous film festivals including Neighboring Scenes in New York, Mar del Plata, Lima, and Montreal First Peoples Festival. The film was also Peru’s official submission for Best Foreign Language at the 91st Academy Awards.
