Kiro Russo

Kiro Russo (b. 1984, La Paz, Bolivia) is a Bolivian director, screenwriter, editor, and producer known for visceral, poetic realist cinema centered on mining communities, urban destitution, and spiritual malaise. He studied film at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. After early shorts like Enterprisse (2010), Juku (2011), and Nueva Vida (2015), his debut feature Dark Skull (Viejo Calavera) (2016) explored generational anxiety in a mining village. His second feature The Great Movement (El Gran Movimiento) (2021, shot in Super 16mm) follows Elder’s illness as he and fellow former miners trek toward La Paz amid desperation. Winner of the Venice Orizzonti Special Jury Prize, it blends documentary texture, social critique, and spiritual symbolism. Russo’s cinema evokes place, labor, and the fragile boundary between body and city.