Rodante Films

Cumbia of the world and for the whole world. From Buenos Aires as a starting point, the documentary Cumbia Around The World takes us on a tour through several countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and Japan; to discover the origins, the present and the future of this rhythm that engages all social classes…

Quarry workers and construction sites. Private neighborhoods. Paleontological digs. The earth unites and separates all of them, and everyone has an interpretation of how this world should be inhabited. The documentary follows their interests to build a story about the expansion of the city and its consequences.

Irineo had lived in Cochabamba since he was 10 years old. He moved there with his parents from Alota, a small town in the highlands where they grow quinua. The international quinua boom led Irineo to return to his home town 20 years later, with his wife and children, in search for a better life that the city was unable to give him. In Alota Don Lucio is waiting for them; he is Irineo's grandfather and the leader of the community, who never left his home town, but who has watched how the population has gradually moved out from the town to different metropolitan areas. Now Alota looks forward to a future of economic prosperity, which threatens to destabilize the everyday life of the community, as mass marketers move in to commercialize a product that only yesterday was a basic foodstuff closely linked to the Pachamama.