They even sell rain

Mexican director Sebastian and executive producer Costa, along with the crew, come to Cochabamba , Bolivia , to make a film about Columbus ' first trip to the New World and his meeting with the local population. Based on a limited budget, Costa decided to make a film in Bolivia's poorest country in South America. The local population agrees to appear in extras for two dollars a day and at the same time do the physical work of preparing the scenery for the shoot.

Sebastian selects one of the locals named Daniel for the role of Atuey , the leader of Taino , who led the rebellion against the Europeans. His daughter Belen also plays an important role in the film. Sebastian does not know that Daniel speaks out in demonstrations against the privatization of water, to which the local government has agreed. Filming begins without incident, despite the alcoholism of actor Anton, playing the role of Columbus . Costa starts to get worried after he sees Daniel at the demonstrations and asks him to refrain from participating until the end of the shoot. Daniel pretends to agree with Costa, but at the same time continues to participate in demonstrations and after clashes with the police, he has wounds on his face. After that, Costa offers Daniel several thousand dollars to stop participating in the demonstrations. Daniel accepts the money, but again goes to the demonstrations and goes to jail. Sebastian begins to doubt that they will be able to finish the film, but Costa convinces him to continue filming and gives a bribe to the police so that they let Daniel go on the set of the key scene of the film. After the shooting of this scene, the police arrive and tries to detain Daniel, but other extras surround the police and Daniel manages to escape.

The same evening, the news reports that the clashes with the police in Cochabamba intensified and escalated into violence. Seeing this, the actors Juan and Alberto decide to go home, but Sebastian persuades them to stay. The next morning, before the group sets off to continue filming, the wife of Daniel Teresa comes to Costa and asks him to help in finding their daughter Belen, who is rumored to be wounded. After deliberation, Costa agrees, despite the protests of Sebastian. Together with Theresa, Costa finds Belen and takes her to the hospital. At this time, Sebastian and the group were detained at the checkpoint and everyone except Anton left Sebastian to go home. Demonstrators achieve their goal and protests end. Costa expresses the hope that the film will someday be completed, and Daniel, for saving his daughter, will give Costa a bottle of Bolivian water.

• Luis Tosar - Costa
• Gael Garcia Bernal - Sebastian
• Carra Elehalde - Anton
• Raul Arevalo - Juan
• Carlos Santos - Alberto
• Juan Carlos Adurivi - Daniel

The film received mostly positive reviews. On the Rotten Tomatoes website , the film is rated 88% based on 59 reviews ^[5] .

Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4, while writing that the film boldly raises the issues that were being considered, but he could not find any notes at the end that the extras in this film were not underestimated ^[6] .

• Official site
• " They even sell rain ” on the Internet Movie Database