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In the last scene of También la lluvia (Icíar Bollaín), the Spanish film producer, Costa (Luis Tosar), rides away from Cochabamba, Bolivia, in a taxi.1 He holds a wooden box in his hand, a carefully wrapped gift that could be featured in Martha Stewart Indigenous if such a magazine existed. As the city flashes by through the windows and back windshield of the car, a medium close-up shows Costa as he slowly unwraps a leather cord, opens the wooden box packed with raffia, and takes out a small, silver-capped bottle of clear liquid. He holds the bottle up to the light and smiles. "Yaku," he intones to himself, repeating the Quechua word for "water" that marks several key moments of this film. Costa's profile, now shown in a close-up, blurs as the camera rack-focuses to show indigenous bodies walking down a now-peaceful cityscape outside of the car. The camera focuses in on the taxi's reflection on nearby shop windows and then focuses out. The screen gently fades to white.
In this sequence, the bottle in Costa's hand is a thank-you gift from Daniel (Juan Carlos Aduviri), the Bolivian star of Costa's film who, despite friction throughout filming, has become his friend after Costa saves Daniel's daughter's life. He has given the little package to Costa in a goodbye sequence replete with hugs, Costa's hand on the back of Daniel's head as if he were a child. This sequence confirms that Costa, previously more interested in profits than human beings, has suddenly turned into a "good guy" at the end of También la lluvia. This unlikely embrace underscores his conversion and offers a feel-good Hollywood ending on an abandoned film set in Bolivia. In the next sequence, Costa is being whisked to the airport, safely and without guilt leaving the remains of the ruined set for cochabambinos to clean up as they rebuild their city. As Costa sits back and contemplates the ruined city through which the car noiselessly travels, he may wonder, from his position of quiet safety, what will become of Cochabamba and its water crisis as he leaves with no plans to return? Similarly, the viewer-comfortably situated in a plush seat, or perhaps in bed, while viewing the film on a screen large...