Heddy Honigmann

Why did you choose these people as the narrators of history? I got the idea for this film while visiting my family in Lima. We went to a fine restaurant and I recognized the waiter from previous visits. I asked if he had tended to many important people during all the years he’d been there. Hold on, he said, I will tell you some stories. The way he talked about his career, seeing the people in power from up close, inspired me to make this film. I was especially moved by the way he uses his sense of humour to survive the mistreatment he suffered. I immediately began to work on the film. I knew that there were people who had seen and heard a lot, but no one had ever asked them about it. At least no cineaste had. In an early stage the film was called ‘La palabra del mudo’ (‘The Words of the Mute’), after the books of Julio Ramón Ribeyro with tales about Limeans. I think this is my most complex and cinematic work, so I am very sad my health does not allow me to come to Lima to present it at the festival. Especially after getting rave reviews all around the world, and news of that success reaching the Peruvian papers.

The tone of this film seems different from your previous film about Lima Metal and Melancholy from 1994 - more critical - why is that? That film is more about the optimism of the Peruvians, made during the crisis. When I started working on El olvido Alan García had just been re-elected. This is a corrupt man who led the country to ruin in his previous presidency. But there was no better alternative. I really wanted to point the finger at the Peruvian presidents and that’s why I show footage of them taking their oath. They promise to serve the people and fight for the youth of this country. But the youth of this country is in trouble. There is a lack of work and education, drug problems. Still I have tried to find a balance in the film – though a tense one – between the darkness and the light. There is incredible sadness and a violent history. But Peruvians have a unique sense of humour and way of surviving. They can take something and turn it on its head – for the better. All the people in the film are there for a reason, however brief their appearance may be, they represent a facet of Lima.

What is the function of the scene with the magic potion vendor selling a lady a mixture to improve her memory? It was really a miracle that we found this man and just at this time the lady came up to ask for it. And the vendor has his discourse about how this cocktail should really be given to the presidents and to the military. Memory is the central theme of the film. We are in an alternating cycle of democratically chosen Presidents and coups by caudillos (military leaders). El olvido is also about the danger of forgetting the past and not learning from history. That is really true for the whole of Latin America.

Eva Sancho Rodriguez