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“The Dancer Upstairs”

The other night, I saw “The Dancer Upstairs,” a movie about The Shining Path (El Sendero Luminoso), the Maoist revolutionary movement that plagued–and, to a certain extent, continues to plague–Peru.

The film was directed by John Malkovich; it’s an interesting look at the events surrounding the capture of The Shining Path’s leader, the enigmatic Abimael Guzman. Here’s a good review, and here’s a bad one–I tend to agree with the second: for one thing, the movie’s “in the wrong damn language” (that being English).

Nevertheless, it’s a visually compelling portrayal of Andean life: the indigenous population’s stunning poverty, the urbane sophistication of the European-decended privileged class, and the remarkable physical terrain, replete with snowcapped peaks and barren plains. Indeed, much of the movie was filmed in Quito, Ecuador; the big city scenes were made in Lima, Peru.

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