Steel Life (Vida Férrea), directed by Manuel Bauer, is a movie that follows the journey of the Central Peruvian Railroad, a freight train, from the top of the Andes, at 4800 meters of altitude, to the Pacific Ocean’s shore, carrying minerals with loads of wealth and damnation for all those who cross its track. This 4-day journey occurs during the most important national holiday, Independence Day, and we might find what bring us together and tear us apart as a country.
International Critics’ Award, FICRESCI Award, 53rd Visions du Réel
(Nyon, Switzerland)
Best Feature Film, Alcances Festival 2022
(Cádiz, Spain)
Special Jury Award, Cinema Vérité, Iran International Documentary Film Festival
(Teheran, Iran)
Honorable mention, 2022 Al Este Festival
(Lima, Perú)
Film Festivals’ selections
IDFA – Best of Fest
(Amsterdam-The Netherlands)
DocsBarcelona “Latitud” Official section
(Barcelona, Spain)
Provinziale Film Festival
(Eberswalde-Germany)
Kasseler Doc Fest – International competition
(Kassel-Germany)
Kathmandu Mountain Film Festival – International competition
(Nepal)
IbizaCineFest – Panorama Competencia de Documentales 2023
(Ibiza, Spain)
Festival Cinélatino – Rencontres de Toulouse: «Découvertes Documentaires» (Mar. 2023)
(Toulouse, France)
Manuel Bauer, Director
Manuel Bauer was born in Lima, Peru, in 1974. He graduated in Communication Sciences at Lima University in 1997. Later he won a Fulbright scholarship to pursue an MA in Film at the New School University, in New York, from 1998 to year 2000, where he studied with Allan Berliner and discovered documentary from a new perspective. That year he moved to Madrid, Spain, and started working at the editorial department of several feature documentaries and
fiction films. Among the directors he has worked with are Marcelo Piñeyro, David Baute, Belén Macías, Melina León and Alex de la Iglesia.
As a director he has shot short films: Eating Dreams, Short, The Soul Extractor, La Novena (finalist at a Canal Plus Contest) and Uprooted (which let him participate at Berlinale’s Talent Campus 2007). Vida Ferrea is his first feature film.
