Destiny Had No Favourites

South American cinema (in common with many others) has long had a fascination with its television rivals. This silly melodrama sees a haughty, bored landowner take the role of the queen bitch in the soap opera (‘Anything Goes’) shooting in the grounds of her capacious house and plays comic variations on operatic conventions. Velarde plays it sparkly, light and self-consciously kitschy; his film is reasonably well-acted and will no doubt strike notes with those familiar with Peruvian television but it is finally too derivative and old-fashioned.