Bolivia, 1978

The Spanish conquest and colonization of the Inca Empire began in the 16th century. As a consequence, the Indians lost their village communities and common land. For centuries, they had worked as slave in the mines and were forcibly converted to Christianity. Today, the Indians still are in the majority in Bolivia, and they speak their own language. Yet they have been degraded to second-class citizens in their own country. Finding solace in alcohol and chewing coca leaves seem to be the only escape from a world that has now lost its purpose and is bereft of all meaning for them. It suits the white minority just fine to let the Indians ruin their health and to befuddle their minds with drugs. An alert and conscious confrontation with their traumatic past and the conquistatorial experience could well lead the Indians to take History into their own hands.

a film by Gordian Troeller and Marie-Claude Deffarge
in cooperation with Ingrid Becker-Ross
original title: Die Nachkommen der Inkas
camera: Gordian Troeller
sound: Ingrid Becker-Ross, Uwe Gesing
editor: Ingeburg Forth
colour
43 minutes

This film only exists in the German version.

Download the script