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Review Summary

At first you are struck by the way the filmmaking in “Cocalero,” Alejandro Landes’s documentary about the presidential campaign of Evo Morales in Bolivia, seems to mirror the campaign itself: ragged, bare-bones, perhaps not entirely sure where it’s going. Hand-held cameras follow Mr. Morales and his supporters on bumpy roads and into remote villages, recording his haircuts and his impromptu jump into a swimming hole in underwear and shirt. It is a film that feeds the established Morales legend: The gregarious, unsophisticated leader of the coca-leaf growers wins the presidency in December 2005 with a combination of unpretentiousness, honesty and grass-roots support. — Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times