A Visual Timeline of the film

 The young actors of Teatro Trono watch historical footage of the Gas Wars in 2003.

 El Alto leads the protests over the exporting of national gas.  The president flees after 84 die in clashes with the police and military.

 Tintín and the other youth remember these events, and how it formed them,

just as they came of age as revolutionary artists.

 The troupe debates how these events live on, how the current indigenous president, Evo Morales, both represents them more than ever, and had better watch out for their needs, or else...

 Another actor, Maya reflects on the role of their theater in a larger project of liberation

 The youth rehearse, and put the events of 2003 into a larger context of historical oppression.

They  prepare for an upcoming tour in their Theater-Truck.

 The play takes form through their collective creative process..

 They explore their identity as urban youth born of indigenous rural migrants.

Traditional/Western clothes are the symbols they play with...
in Andean identity, cloth is everything.

 The tour quickly approaches, and the youth feel enormous pressure to get it ready in time, and begin to realize the enormity of what they're trying to represent.

 Maya goes home between rehearsals, and helps her mother to cook.

 Maya tells her mother about the play they are rehearsing, and how it's about the creation of El Alto. Her mother tells her why she migrated to El Alto from the countryside.

 Tintín tells his father about their play, and how he will be playing a medicineman.  His father is skeptical about his ability, and quizzes him about his Aymara language skills, and the names of the holy mountains he needs to invoke.

 Animation: the sacred mountains are personified, the apus.  One, a cholita, lifts her skirts, and from beneath emerge miners, who walk to the edge of the Altiplano above La Paz. There, they noisily build a city, El Alto, and out of the rubble from the construction a tall, colorful, recycled building emerges... Teatro Trono

 Teatro Trono

 At the top of Teatro Trono's building, Iván, the director of the organization, 

writes dialogue for the youth's play

 Iván thinks on the building's roof, overlooking El Alto and the mountains.

 Iván describes the deeper social causes of the 2003 rebellion, the discontent at inequality that eventually exploded.

 The troupe continues rehearsing, but also can't stop messing around,

their youthful energy distracting them constantly.

 Iván scolds them, trying to get them back on track.

 They do their best to incarnate those who died in the revolt...

 ... and using cardboard they project their images of the icons of the popular classes that revolted.

 They develop their characters, these iconic figures, such as the Cholita, using projections of themselves with whom they improvise interactions.

 Figure... projection... shadow... their identities multiply.

 The troupe is invited to do a public performance in La Paz, representing 

the coup d'etat that caused the last dictatorship. They travel down from frigid El Alto.

 They perform without warning during a commemorative ceremony,

acting as thugs and the union leaders that were assassinated in 1980.

 Their demand is to declassify the secret military files

that hide the identities of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity...

 This protest is taken to the national military headquarters. The files about the Gas Wars are also classified... their declassification would begin the process of justice for the 84 who were shot dead.

The youth continue the protest with a spectacular march through La Paz.

 The youth go to their neighborhood market in Satellite City

In the market they buy an offering to bless the imminent tour in the Theater-Truck

The offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth

 "Pijchando", chewing, coca

 In front of the fire, the youth dare to speak of their greatest hopes for the future

Tintín improvises a dialogue with his character, el Yatiri, who speaks to him in Aymara. Tintín only partly understands, and this fact provokes a crisis where he decides he doesn't dare to manifest this dead medicineman. He decides to leave the role to the understudy, and not accompany the group on tour... 

 An animation shows the troupe leaving El Alto in the Theater Truck and going to the bus terminal. Everyone makes loads of noise in the truck... except Tintín.

 At the terminal, the troupe gets on the bus for Cochabamba, and leaves Tintín behind.

The troupe and the German volunteers set up the Theater Truck for the first time

Ready for their first audience

They bring out the neighbors, their audience, with drums

Just before getting on stage, the actors realize that they are missing key props, and it's obvious that they aren't as ready as they had thought. The lack of leadership is obvious.

They put on the play anyways

And they get the attention and laughter of their audience

 Despite this, as they discuss the next day, it's obvious the troupe is not happy with the show.  There were many errors, and Maya in particular doubts that they have affected the audience as much as they had hoped.

The youth continue their tour, but there's little connection with their audience, 
on and off stage

 Abel imagines doing a monologue on the bus

 An animation shows his imagination, and the public reacts in his imagined fears, booing

 We see the play in fleeting images, and the audience applauds

 The audience, after the plays, get involved during workshops.  Here, in Cochabamba, people re-enact the Water Wars.

 Maya reflects on how effective (or not) the play is being... doubtful that people are being affected as much as she'd like

 Upon return, the troupe reflects with Ivan, their mentor, and recognizes that they need to come up with new tactics.

 The troupe watches footage of their interactions with their publics, and decide to do more interactive theater 

 They radically change their show, and do an interactive performance in the jungle

This performance is a complete success, and the local youth respond to the performance with an interactive show of their own: drums and dancing

Maya reflects above El Alto before the final intervention

Tintín reflects on the miner's helmet and a bag of coca before the final intervention.

Maya performs in a market in El Alto 

Abel performs in central La Paz 

Tintín, as Yatiri, flies up to his perfomance place in La Paz

Tintín performs, throwing coca into the wind to show his pain at his people's suffering

The troupe shouts just before their final performance to get their spirits up

 In the final performance, the troupe faces off with other unrelated protesters and the police

 They demand justice for the fallen of October 2003 in a serious, comical performance

Abel's face merges with that of an anonymous protester

Lenia films herself

The most powerful thing is to see yourself.