Quintet

In the early 1990s, in response to Peru’s inflationary economy and a government destabilised by corruption and terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their cars to work as taxi drivers to weather the financial crisis. Taking the documentary “Metal y Melancolía” (1993) by the Peruvian-Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann (October 1, 1951 – May 21, 2022) as a starting point, the work seeks to create a parallel of the historical contexts, due to the economic and politics crisis in face of a new period of authoritarianism, as well as evidence the socio-cultural remanent thirty years after the original film. Five taxi drivers are hired and conditioned to sing the national anthem while they make the requested ride, showing various degrees of articulation between patriotic melancholy and the duty to fulfil the agreed task, and where memory skews the hymn performances.

Full lenght: 1’25