In 1879, Bolivia lost its access to the sea in a war. When the director Gabriela Paz was a child, she did not understand how Bolivia had lost the sea – she thought the Chileans had taken it in buckets, but at the end of the day, they felt lazy and left a piece, which is nowadays Lake Titicaca.

Puerto Escondido is a travel itinerary towards interior landscapes, myths, characters and contradictions in a country that every day remembers this loss. It is also a kind of letter to a sibling country, offering a current perspective on the aftermath of the Pacific War and how it was experienced in private and public spaces, mixing family archives and official sources. In this film, many extraordinary, peculiar stories will not go unnoticed and reflect Bolivia’s insatiable thirst for the sea. 

UK Premiere

Special film introduction by film researcher Laís Lorenço (University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Brazil & University College London - UCL, UK).

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ECHOS AND HORIZONS: Contemporary Bolivian Cinema

Latin American film club Cinema Mentiré presents a collection of recent Bolivian films at The Garden Cinema (39-41 Parker Street, London WC2B 5PQ)

On the occasion of the Bicentenary of Bolivia’s independence in 2025, join Cinema Mentiré and The Garden Cinema to explore a hand-picked selection of recent gems that testify to the prosperity of Bolivian cinema in the last decade. Cinema Mentiré has brought together three very different feature-length films that offer a taste of the new, groundbreaking narratives exploring a changing nation that is also dealing with its enduring past traumas.

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Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.