Días de Santiago

Dias de Santiago (2004)

A total slice of life movie showing a lower class (and probably very common) family in a poor section of Lima, Peru. The main character has come back from three years in the military (fighting guerrillas and Ecuadorians, he explains) and he can't get a job, can't fit in. This is the plight of soldiers world round, and the core of the whole film noir content in American post-WWII films. So it matters, it's powerful, and it's believable.

It also doesn't especially rise above its daily horrors--Santiago trying to keep in control, seeing his violent brother beat his girlfriend, having the same girlfriend seduce him as she asks him to kill the brother, finding the father having sex with Santiago's little sister, and lashing out against his own girlfriend, who is pretty decent overall, wanting an ordinary life.

But an ordinary life can't seem to be found, or not easily, as he looks for a job. There is no one blamed in particular, just a spotlight on how hard it is for people to readjust to life after years away doing the military's bidding. And it's in that navy, for Santiago, that he felt needed and powerful and capable. Other ex-soldiers meet up with him and try to get him to rob a bank with them, but Santiago is a paradigm of the good man, trying to be kind to women, defend the innocent, and get a job. Life is just not always cooperating.

For a U.S. citizen living well and aware of my luck, and some education and hard work but mostly being in the right country in the right century, and really felt for the dilemma of this man. And I made it relate to the similar plight of my own countrymen and women, here, as well as in countries everywhere. Is there something more that can be accomplished to make things more open and helpful? Does the military have a role to play in the transition to civilian life?

To some extent that is the point of the film. It doesn't go anywhere in particular, just paints a horrible situation and a humble, determined man pushed to the edge by circumstances. Shot in a cinema verite style so common now, it might even pass for a slight documentary at times, except for some unnecessary flipping between black and white and color. This film won't be for everyone, but it's a strong example of its type, and important for its origin in South America.

Peruvian writer/director Josue Mendez has made a brave little low budget film that deals with a subject currently burgeoning our hospitals in this country as the fallout of the war on Iraq and still plagues the veterans of the Vietnam War - Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (aka Battle Rattle). This is a difficult topic to dramatize without being preachy or maudlin, but Mendez has succeeded where others have failed.

Santiago (Pietro Sibille) is a 23-year-old retired veteran who was conscripted at age 16 and trained to be a killer - assigned to fighting in the war against Ecuador, against terrorists, and against the drug mafia. He returns to his family in Lima a damaged, broken, paranoid misfit who tries to leave his military past behind but mentally returns to it as the only time he felt important. Unable to work he finally begins to drive a taxi and encounters all manner of passengers - wealthy men, girls on the party circuit, disreputable people of all types. He tries desperately to adjust to the post-military life, but find his family in shambles, a wholly dysfunctional unit to which he can no longer relate. How he finds his 'place' in this chaos is the subject of Mendez' story (Mendez has based this on a true story/stories and knows his subject well).

Pietro Sibille as Santiago delivers a credible performance, one that consistently borders on fragmentation of a mind deeply scarred by war and fighting. The remainder of the cast is fine. Mendez uses a mixture of black and white film with color segments and this is distracting to annoying: if the choices of film related consistently to a tenor in the story (which is not the case) then this technique could be considered artistic.

The manner in which the story is related is very much in keeping with the fragmented and paranoid mindset of Santiago and for this the director is to be commended for successfully achieving the next to impossible! Many strong points to a film that is flawed by technical problems. Grady Harp

I saw this at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it played for it's second year in a row. I guess since it became Peru's official nomination to the Academy Awards the Festival organizers felt they should bring it back as they feature most of the films that are official submissions to the upcoming Academy Awards. I would hope it doesn't come back for a third year at the 2007 festival. This is admittedly a low budget film but nothing in this film can get you past the fact that it is low budget. I tried to be sympathetic to young former soldiers trying to make a living back in the civilian world but except for the lead character you didn't know enough about his friends to care what happened to them. As for his plight it became predictable from the beginning. The woman who played the mother and the girl who played the little sister in small roles seemed like the only ones in this movie who could actually act. I would give this a 4.5 out of a possible 10 and not recommend it.

Lima, Peru. If you ever been there you will recognize the sad truth about that city: poverty and misery all over. For a movie coming from Peru, I think it was very good, but it cannot stand with international standards: most of the actors were pathetic:) Now, don't understand me wrong, the movie is nice, and I recommend it, BUT is still far away from the Italian neo-realism (It is indeed a neo-realist film..) and WAY far away from the Taxi Driver, that many people compare it with. The streets and the atmosphere from Lima was caught very good on the screen using some black and white images alternating with colored ones, but other than this, don't expect anything spectacular.

7/10 - one of the best Peruvian movies.

Recommended by a journalist from a communist country during a film festival I had some initial hesitation regarding watching this film. However after having seen this highly artistic film,I am ready to say that it is one of the most original films made in recent times.I find it difficult to swallow the comparison made with US film "Taxi Driver". By making such a weird comparison people are belittling this film.My favorite moments from this film are the confrontation scenes. They bear testimony to the fact that a person besieged with problems has to fight ferociously to overcome all troubles. Some of the sequences had a dream like air to them.To a layman the title of the film "Days of Santiago" suggests how he passes his days.But to a serious film goer it denotes the entire past,present and future life of Santiago. Peruvian actor Pietro Sibylle is a great attraction of this film. The troublesome feelings of anger,hopelessness, frustration, anxiety and despair are much too visible on his woebegone face.A truly valid reason to watch this film.