Runa Simi

Augusto Zegarra · Peru · 2025 · 85 min


FEATURES COMPETITION

Fernando Valencia, a 29-year-old voice artist from Cusco, Peru, is an Indigenous activist, painter, and devoted single father. Known for his uncanny ability to voice multiple characters, he launched Quechua Clips—a viral project that reimagines iconic animated scenes in Quechua, the ancestral language of the Incas, also known as Runa Simi. The response was overwhelming: millions of Quechua speakers hungry for stories in their own language.


Fueled by this groundswell of support, Fernando sets his sights on an ambitious and quixotic dream—to dub Disney’s 1994 classic The Lion King into Quechua, with the help of his spirited eight-year-old son, Dylan. Armed with a homemade studio and relentless resolve, Fernando navigates countless ups and downs, facing rejection, setbacks, and self-doubt. Yet through it all, his determination never wavers, turning his personal mission into a powerful call for language justice and cultural reclamation.



Documentary · Drama, Comedy · 7+
Language: Spanish, Quechua, English
Themes: Indigenous rights & languages, social justice, fatherhood



Screenplay: Augusto Zegarra
Producers: Claudia Chávez Lévano, Paloma Iturriaga
Executive Producers: Ellen Schneider, Dominique Bravo, Benjamin Bratt, Peter Bratt, Alpita Patel, Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch
Cinematographer: Renzo Rivas
Editor: Carlos Rojas Felice


Key cast: Fernando Valencia, Dylan Valencia

Director's Statement

We believe that safeguarding a language is synonymous with preserving an entire worldview, and our documentary strives to inspire action towards this cause. Runa Simi sheds light on the fundamental access to audiovisual content in Quechua (and endangered indigenous languages globally) as well as other rights denied to indigenous people. Using a powerful, sometimes humorous, intergenerational story, we aim to contribute to the movement towards linguistic empowerment. We're confident about this approach: Fernando’s dubbed short animated Disney clips went viral and have now become a powerful educational tool used in schools to preserve and teach this mostly oral language. Promoting the use of this language in children is key to its future survival; in Quechua and in other colonized communities around the globe. — Augusto Zegarra