Gold and the price of innocent flesh

A mining town at 5,000 metres for decades has been a centre of exploitation of poor workers, trying to jump-start their lives. Prostitution is rife often involving underage girls. Matteo Tortone's film "Mother Lode" investigates the myths and the exploitation through the eyes of a 13-yr old miner.

When I was in Bolivia in 2007, I read a newspaper report about a place called La Rinconada just over the border in Peru. It described how shops trading normally during daytime, opened brothels upstairs at night, and how many girls, often underage, were attracted by promises of normal work advertised in Peru and Bolivia.

The problem has continued with no apparent serious interest by the Peruvian authorities in this remote village. La Rinconada is officially the highest inhabited place in the world, but is not likely to be featured in tourist magazines.

A new film by Matteo Tortone,"MotherLode" was shot in the village and presents mining work and its traditional customs to illustrate his thesis that the human body is a commodity whose value and hence its exploitation, oscillates with the price of gold, and inversely with the fortunes of stock markets. Jose the main character, portrays his life in the mining village starting at age 13, a life balanced between the magical thinking of traditional rituals and the daily reality of harsh work.

Illegal goldmining also takes place in the Peruvian amazon, involving trafficking, but there the exploitation is at least receiving attention from the authorities.

The Prisma discussed the film with the director at some length to clarify his interest in making a film that is both art and documentary.

The conversation, with links and images can be read on the site of The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper, where it was first published in August 2022, here: https://theprisma.co.uk/2022/08/22/gold-and-the-price-of-innocent-flesh/