‘Runa Simi’: About One Man’s Quest to Dub ‘The Lion King’ into Quechua

It took Peru’s Augusto Zegarra nine years to complete his debut feature documentary “Runa Simi” but less than a year to reap a boatload of awards.

He just took home the Alternativa Film Festival’s Focus Award last April 30, which includes a hefty cash prize. This would be the 19^th  honor, starting with Tribeca’s Albert Maysles Award for in the new documentary director category in June last year.

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“Runa Simi” also earned the distinction of being the first Peruvian feature to win the Palm Springs Festival Ibero-American Film honor. Testament to its uplifting wide appeal is the raft of audience prizes it has collected.

“Runa Simi,” which means Language of the People in Quechua, the most widely spoken Indigenous language in South America, follows Fernando Valencia (29), a Cusco-based voice artist, who is an Indigenous activist, painter and single dad. Known for his range, he launched “Quechua Clips” – a viral series reworking iconic animated scenes in Quechua, spoken by some 10 million people. The response was immediate and massive: millions eager to hear stories in their own language. With his spirited eight-year-old son, Dylan, by his side, he sets out to dub Disney’s “The Lion King.” From a homemade studio, he weathers rejection, setbacks and doubt, turning a personal obsession into something larger: a push for language justice and cultural reclamation.

For Zegarra, meeting Valencia has ostensibly changed his life. As he relates it, it all started when a friend showed him “Quechua Clips.” Spurred by the idea of making a short about Valencia and his project, he went to visit him in Cusco and was shocked to find out that Valencia performed all the voices while his son did the higher-pitched ones.

He also learned that Valencia was also uncannily tech-savvy. With just a laptop he had been given, Valencia had set up a small, makeshift studio at home, where he used basic karaoke software to strip out the original voices and replace them with Quechua.

Both were pressed for work but armed with earnings from filming weddings, Zegarra made the short but just as he finished it, Valencia told him he wanted to dub “The Lion King” entirely into Quechua. So together they set out on this quixotic quest to make a feature about the journey, chronicling the voice casting process and other challenges along the way. Shooting was suspended for two years during the COVID pandemic, which also added to its lengthy gestation.

Backed by grants from the Peruvian government and the Sundance Lab, one of the first scenes they shot was Valencia calling Disney’s 1-800 number to see about securing the rights to dubbing it. Throughout the film, his repeated efforts grow more comical and frustrating as no one returns his calls.

“Runa Simi” has since been screened in festivals across Europe, Latin America and the U.S. It has yet to secure distribution deals but given all the buzz, that will likely change.

“Fernando is now developing his first feature documentary that he wants to direct and maybe edit. I’m going to produce it, which is an honor because in Quechua there is a beautiful term called ayni, which means reciprocity,” Zegarra says.

“Ideally, we want to start a conversation with our film around Indigenous rights. Not only are Indigenous people in Peru looking to getting films out in their own language but they’re also looking for more basic rights, like access to water, access to health, electricity and a good intercultural, bilingual education.”

“Runa Simi” is produced by Claudia Chávez Lévano and Paloma Iturriaga of Peru’s Estudio Alaska 88. Benjamin Bratt, Ellen Schneider, Dominique Bravo, Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch, Peter Bratt and ⁠Alpita Patel serve as executive producers.

The 3^rd Alternativa Film Festival ran over April 21-30.