Hispanic Film Festival: Yana-Wara

Yana-Wara is a stark, black-and-white drama that weaves together communal justice, gender violence, and Andean spirituality in the windswept highlands of southern Peru. At 80 years old, Don Evaristo faces the communal justice system, accused of murdering his 13-year-old granddaughter, Yana-Wara, while the entire community gathers to decide his fate. As the testimonies unfold, the hearing frames the film, and the villagers gradually reconstruct the girl’s story, shifting between the present-day proceedings and the harsh, luminous landscapes where she once herded llamas and carried out daily chores after her mother’s death.

The 2026 Hispanic Film Festival, possible thanks to the Spanish Film Club Grant from Pragda and the Spanish Ministry of Culture, brings together seven highly awarded films from Spain, Panama-Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Guatemala. These films serve as vehicles for timely discussions that, although situated in Latin America and the Iberic Peninsula, extend to realities experienced beyond these geographies. Additionally, their cinematographic relevance and media/medium experimentation promote urgent discussions of creativity, mediation, and technological innovation. As a whole, this festival seeks to promote general themes of interrogating existing power structures and promoting an alternative lens through which to view hegemonic inequities. 

Organized by Revista de Estudios Hispánicos in partnership with the Latin American Studies Program and the Romance Languages and Literatures Department.