Carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of metal, a freight train heads down the Peruvian Central Railway, a route that stretches from the Andean city of Cerro de Pasco, one of the highest in the world, to the Port of Callao on the Pacific coast. Structured around this journey, Manuel Bauer’s documentary debut weaves a vivid tapestry of experiences that captures the complex sociopolitical fabric of contemporary Peru.
Dominating these intimate anecdotes, which are spread across regions, is the influence of the mining industry. Manuel, a middle-aged native of Cerro de Pasco, speaks of how his friends and relatives have either died of lead poisoning or chosen to migrate to other towns. Health concerns trouble not only the older population of Peru, but also the children who grow up amid contamination. Here disease and early death are more than facts of life: they emerge as a disturbing kind of intergenerational inheritance.
