Country guide · South America
10 Essential Films from Bolivia + 7 Movies Set in or About Bolivia
Bolivia on the atlas: the strongest films of its own cinema, and the films the rest of the world has set there. Every list is curated and ranked by hand.
10 Essential Films from Bolivia
Native cinema in Bolivia’s own creative voice — the passport route that earns visas and citizenship.
-
1. El Cementerio de los Elefantes
Drawn from the writings of Bolivian chronicler Víctor Hugo Viscarra, this stark drama follows a man who checks into a notorious La Paz drinking den known as the elephants' graveyard — a place people go to drink themselves into oblivion. A raw descent into the city's underbelly.
Curator’s note: El Cementerio de los Elefantes ranked among the strongest verified Bolivia-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
2. My Friend
A weathered truck driver and a quick-witted shoeshine boy strike up an unlikely friendship as they journey together across Bolivia, from the lowlands of Santa Cruz up to the high Andes of La Paz. A warm road movie about companionship.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Bolivia cinema candidate with Spanish original-language evidence.
-
3. The Principal Enemy
In an Andean peasant community long ground down by the abuses of local landowners, a violent act lays bare the utter failure of official justice, and the villagers begin to reckon with who their true enemy is. Jorge Sanjinés's militant indigenous drama.
Curator’s note: The Principal Enemy ranked among the strongest verified Bolivia-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
4. La nación clandestina
Cast out years earlier from his Aymara community, a man returns carrying a great ceremonial mask of death, resolved to perform a ritual dance to the very end. Jorge Sanjinés's haunting meditation on identity, exile, and belonging.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Bolivia cinema candidate with Spanish, Aymara original-language evidence.
-
5. Utama
On the parched Bolivian altiplano, an elderly Quechua couple who have herded llamas all their lives face a punishing drought and their grandson's pleas to move to the city. Whether to stay or to go becomes a question of dignity and love. A quietly beautiful drama.
Curator’s note: Candidate native film held back by curator: missing accepted native-language fit, sole country-origin evidence, or explicit web-curated primary-country evidence.
-
6. Amargo Mar
This Bolivian historical drama revisits the War of the Pacific, in which the country lost its coastline and its access to the sea — a wound that still shapes the national memory. A somber period piece.
Curator’s note: Amargo Mar ranked among the strongest verified Bolivia-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
7. Pseudo
A jobless, desperate La Paz taxi driver assumes the identity of a passenger and takes over his next assignment, only to discover he has stepped into the shoes of a hired assassin marked for a high-level target. A tense thriller of mistaken identity.
Curator’s note: Pseudo ranked among the strongest verified Bolivia-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
8. Sena/Quina, la inmortalidad del cangrejo
Two small-time hustlers from opposite corners of Bolivia scrape by on petty scams, until a chance turn sends their lives spinning in an unexpected direction. A picaresque comedy about survival and friendship.
Curator’s note: Sena/Quina, la inmortalidad del cangrejo ranked among the strongest verified Bolivia-authored features for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and importance within the national cinema.
-
9. American Visa
After his application for a U.S. visa is refused, a mild-mannered Bolivian professor desperate to reach his son in the States slides into a world of crime — and into an affair with a woman from the lowlands. A bittersweet drama about longing and reinvention.
Curator’s note: Curator validation: native Bolivia cinema candidate with Spanish original-language evidence.
-
10. Wara Wara
In the 16th century, a peaceful Inca community is destroyed by conquistadors, and a young noblewoman named Wara Wara flees into the mountains, where a Spanish soldier comes to her aid. Bolivia's oldest surviving feature, a silent historical romance.
Curator’s note: Candidate native film held back by curator: missing accepted native-language fit, sole country-origin evidence, or explicit web-curated primary-country evidence.
7 Movies Set in or About Bolivia
Outside filmmakers looking toward Bolivia: optional perspectives for a wider journey.
-
1. Even the Rain
A Spanish film crew arrives in Cochabamba to shoot a revisionist epic about Columbus, exploiting cheap local labor — just as the Bolivian city erupts in real protests over the privatization of its water. A layered drama about exploitation, then and now.
Curator’s note: Even the Rain is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
2. Jungle
In 1981, a young adventurer and two friends push deep into the Bolivian Amazon with an enigmatic guide, chasing a dream of untouched wilderness. When the group is separated, one man is left to survive alone against the jungle. Based on a true story.
Curator’s note: Jungle is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
3. Adela
In 1945, a young wanderer arrives in a remote Bolivian town to run a trading business, settling into a hotel among a fractious mix of indigenous people, Creoles, and Europeans, where the enigmatic Adela catches his eye. A wistful period drama.
Curator’s note: Adela is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
4. Ernesto
A young Japanese-Bolivian medical student travels to Cuba, where he meets Che Guevara and is swept up in the revolutionary cause. When conflict comes to Bolivia, he joins Guevara's guerrillas under a new name. Based on a true story.
Curator’s note: Ernesto is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
5. The Losers
Betrayed and left for dead during a mission in the Bolivian jungle, a team of elite special-ops soldiers goes underground and joins a mysterious operative to hunt down the man who set them up. A slick, comic-book-style action thriller.
Curator’s note: The Losers is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
6. Che!
This Hollywood biography traces the revolutionary career of Ernesto Che Guevara, from his role alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution to his final guerrilla campaign in the mountains of Bolivia.
Curator’s note: Che! is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
-
7. The Gateway of the Moon
To hide the brutal methods behind his Bolivian railway project, a ruthless construction boss schemes against the Englishman sent to inspect the work — while his own niece is drawn to the inspector. A silent adventure melodrama.
Curator’s note: The Gateway of the Moon is a strong foreign-authored film whose sustained setting or subject engages with Bolivia.
Selected by the FilmsAroundThe.World editorial desk
Lists are ranked for craft, enduring reputation, influence, and depth of engagement with place. Native selections require a verified creative relationship to the country; souvenir selections require an outside creative lead and a country-centered story. Read the methodology.
Editorial review: 2026-07-13
Nearby on the atlas
More South America guides: