Discover the best of Bolivian cinema, film, and television
Discover the definitive list of popular and critically-acclaimed movies and TV shows from Bolivia. Find your next binge-watch, streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
The cinema of Bolivia
Bolivian cinema is a cinema of breathtaking altitudes and deep indigenous roots, a powerful and politically engaged voice from the heart of South America. Its modern identity was forged by one of the continent's most revolutionary film movements. In the 1960s, director Jorge Sanjinés and the Ukamau Group pioneered a 'cinema alongside the people', creating films not just about indigenous communities, but with them. Classics like Blood of the Condor (Yawar Mallku) were more than just movies; they were acts of cultural affirmation and political resistance, often filmed in Quechua and Aymara, and they cemented a powerful tradition of social filmmaking that endures to this day. This spirit of authenticity continues to thrive. A new wave of Bolivian storytellers are crafting films that explore contemporary life while remaining deeply connected to the nation's unique cultural tapestry. Directors like Juan Carlos Valdivia have gained international attention for films that beautifully capture the country's stunning, high-altitude landscapes and complex identity. What makes Bolivian film so unforgettable is this unwavering commitment to its own perspective. The industry may be small, but its stories are immense. It is a cinema that looks you directly in the eye, set against the dramatic backdrop of the Andes, speaking with a voice that is both ancient and urgent.
Best Bolivian series
La bicicleta de los Huanca 1993
La bicicleta de los Huanca is a 1993 comedy series that tells the story of the Huancas and their anecdotes in the small town of Pucarani in the department of La Paz in Bolivia. It is the series that has been seen the most times in the history of Bolivian television.
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Best Bolivian movies
Samsara 2002
A love story situated in the Himalayas. A Buddhist monk can't choose between life and the way of the Buddha.
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Utama 2022
In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.
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I Miss You 2019
Following his son Gabriel’s death, Jorge travels from conservative Bolivia to New York City to confront Gabriel’s boyfriend Sebastian. While the two battle over Jorge’s inability to accept his son, Sebastian channels his grief into a bold new play in honor of his lost love, in which Gabriel’s inner turmoil is transformed into an eye-popping gay fantasia.
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Paths of the Soul 2015
Eleven Tibetans prostrate themselves every few steps during a 1,200-mile pilgrimage that lasts for seven months.
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Willaq Pirqa, the Cinema of My Village 2022
Sistu and her small community in the Andes discover the magic of cinema. This meeting causes a stir but also confronts them with their culture and highlights the limitations of the community to understand and read Spanish. As a solution, they choose Sistu so that every week he goes to town to see a movie and tells it to everyone in the square.
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Sunshine that Can Move Mountains 2017
Tenzin Banjue, a young Tibetan monk living in the temple, takes a long way back home for the first time to visit his brother who is in a vegetative state from falling off the cliff. Despite finding himself enamored by his brother's fiancée, he refuses his mother's offer to stay and marry her, who at the same time gets a marriage proposal from another man. Struggling between faith to his religion and truth to his heart of love, Tenzin, together with his brother and fiancée, takes on a soul searching journey of five thousand kilometers.
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