Arts & Entertainment

Bolivian film inspired by ‘Alice in Wonderland’ pays tribute to La Paz

La Paz, Aug 24 (EFE).- A young girl named Alicia discovers the customs, traditions and iconic people and places of La Paz in a new Bolivian film inspired by “Alice in Wonderland.”

Filmed by the Plurinational Academy of the Performing Arts, “Alicia en la ciudad maravilla” (Alicia in the Wonder City) serves as a vehicle for showcasing the history, characteristic streets and diverse festivals of that city located 3,640 meters (11,934 feet) above sea level.

The story was initially conceived of as a play, but due to Covid-19 restrictions those plans needed to be altered, Sara Alvarez, one of the film’s producers and also a cast member, told Efe.

The team therefore decided to reinvent themselves and launch a movie version that featured a group of 20 actors and was shot last year amid the pandemic with support from the Secretariat of Cultures of La Paz.

The title of the film, which premiered last week, evokes the memory and surreal world of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 English children’s tale “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

But the magic in this case occurs in La Paz, the seat of the Bolivian government and a metropolis that was named in 2014 – based on a New7Wonders Foundation poll of millions of people all over the world – as one of the New7Wonders Cities along with Beirut, Lebanon; Doha, Qatar; Durban, South Africa; Havana, Cuba; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Vigan, Philippines.

In the film, Alicia discovers La Paz’s Alasitas festival of miniatures and Ekeko, the god of abundance and prosperity in the mythology of the people of the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes.

She learns to dance the Cueca Paceña; becomes acquainted with a Fiesta del Preste, a community festival in the Andes region; and tours different places including the emblematic and fabled Jaen street, known for its colonial architecture and its associated stories and legends.

The goal is for local residents to fall in love with their city and its traditions and for foreigners to experience some of the magic of La Paz, Alvarez said. EFE

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