Followed by a recorded Q&A with filmmaker Diego Mondaca.

Inspired by the experiences of his grandfather, Bolivian director Diego Mondaca's feature debut is feverish odyssey into the memory of a vicious — but often forgotten — war between Bolivia and Paraguay, which raged from 1932 to 1934 in the harsh terrain of the Chaco Boreal along the Bolivia-Paraguay border, an area that had been the subject of a dispute between the two nations since 1825. Set in 1934, CHACO follows a small Bolivian regiment, made up mostly of indigenous Aymara and Quechua soldiers, as they trek across the inhospitable Chaco plains and forests in constant search of food, water and the ever-elusive enemy. Under the command of an unforgiving German captain — a character based on Hans Kundt, a retired World War I colonel who led the Bolivian military campaign during the Chaco War — the regiment confronts dwindling rations, internal disputes and diminishing energy. But even as isolation, despair and hunger grow with every day, every hellish march and each hastily erected camp, the captain insists that they pursue their mission at all costs — and against all reason. A powerful evocation of the absurdity of war, with echoes of AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD and APOCALYPSE NOW, CHACO is a rare war movie that conveys the intense, visceral anguish of warfare without combat, gunshots or even an enemy soldier in sight. Official Selection, 2020 International Film Festival Rotterdam. DIR/SCR Diego Mondaca; SCR Cesar Diaz, Pilar Palomero; PROD Álvaro Manzano, Camila Molina. Bolivia/Argentina, 2020, color, 77 min. In Aymara, Quechua and Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

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