Eldorado XXI

ELDORADO XXL tells of the living conditions of workers in a gold mine in the southeast of Peru. Under an ancient system, cachorreo, the miner works for 30 days without remuneration and on the 31st day (if lucky) he is allowed to explore the mine for his own profit. To bear this life, the workers are chewing coca leafs and drink heavily. The film is a haunting and mysterious ethnographic reality cut-up. Set in the highest settlement in the world, La Rinconada (5,100m), in the Peruvian Andes; an illusion leads men to self destruction, moved by the same interests, dealt with the same tools and means in contemporaneity as it has been dealt in the ancient times. They foster the hope that one day they will find the means to resettle elsewhere.

In the presence of Salomé Lamas.