Voces inocentes

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2005. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture "…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."

The film is set in war-torn El Salvador in the early 1980s. The in-power, repressive, government's army is fighting the peasant guerrilla movement. The residents of a rural poor town have the misfortune to be between the rebels and the army. Their homes in the town become incredibly dangerous, and they are always on the cusp of becoming destitute refugees.

There is no doubt who the bad guys are. The army has dictatorial powers and forcibly recruits boys into the army once they turn 12 years old. They also rape girls, execute anyone they are suspicious of regardless of age and sex, and harass the Catholic Church and its priest.

This story is told via a poor family consisting of a Mother, a 11-year old son (Chava), and a younger brother and older sister. They live in squalor and danger. The main character is Chava, and we see the plight of all the residents through his eyes as he is able to move around the town more easily as a child. He is also a typical boy in an atypical environment. He is foolhardy, fun-loving, brave, adventurous, and curious. He is determined to live his 11-year old life as normal as possible no matter what. And he does a good job of it – for a while.

The Mother is heroic and courageous. She sacrifices everything for her children always trying to protect them and love them under the most gruesome circumstances.

It is hard not to be moved and sickened as you watch the story of the family and town unfold. The movie has a strong anti-United States bias because of the U.S. support for the army and the in-power regime.

The cinematography, art direction, and directing are excellent. And the boy, Chava, is amazingly believable and unaffected by the camera.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Crystal Heart winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

I watched it on the release week in El Salvador on December 26th 2004. It was the first country in which the movie was shown commercially. What can I say? ALMOST NO WORDS, but WONDERFUL.

I am thirty years old now and by that time I was a kid just like CHAVA. I personally had to flee from El Salvador's Army forced recruitment a couple of times, so the movie was a flashback for me. I cried remembering those nights when bullets were flying over my house.

WAR is a crime no matter what the objective is and specially if innocence is stolen from children.

The movie travels through every place in which children are forced to take a weapon in their innocent hands: Africa, Middle-East, Asia, Colombia, etc; or to every place in which children suffer the consequences of war.

For those who has not lived a war by themselves and enjoy watching the news about IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, ISRAEL, COLOMBIA it is time to think about what you can do in order to stop this human massacre in the name of "freedom" .

I just saw this film (World Premiere)the final day of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 18. It is in Spanish with English subtitles. The film, set in El Salvador during the years of civil war in the '80s, is told through the voice and eyes of 11-year old Chava. He lives with his mother, two brothers and a sister in a cardboard-house in a village, and at age 12 will be 'eligible' to be taken into the "ejercito" (army). The acting is superb-both principals and supporting cast- as is the directing and pacing. This film will leave you moved both to tears and to admiration for the human spirit. Though the two hours seemed to pass in minutes, thinking about this film will last for many years. I really felt I was present "on the set". Both the director(Luis Mandoki) and the screenplay writer(Oscar Torres, who was the boy in the film) were present for an emotional and uplifting Q&A. I could only give this film a 10 and hope it will be distributed in as many countries as possible.

I also saw this movie and can testify that it's 90% accurate regarding how the civil war really was. But it's still a left-wing flick, it tilts that way. For instance, it showed us the brutality of the right-wing military but never once did it mentioned the atrocities of the communist guerrillas. I for one lived in El Salvador during the civil war and can say it was an ugly, nasty war. Most of the atrocities were committed by the communist left-wing guerrillas. They also committed massacres en-masse of civilians.

There still DOESN'T exist ONE flick about the Salvadoran civil war which showed BOTH sides of the atrocities. All of them are left-leaning.

Anyways, let's pardon this movie for neglecting to show us the atrocities of the other side (communist guerrillas) and let's focus on the cinematography.... it was excellent, excellent cinematography, I liked the attention to detail in this movie, the recruitments and the sudden barrages of gunfire.. that's exactly how this war was. Boys were forcefully drafted into the army and thrown into battle-infested areas as soon as they reached 12, sometimes younger (amazing that this movie neglected to depict the fact that the guerrillas were worse, they took kids at 9 years of age and gave them Ak-47's to attack military bases).

Anyways, I really enjoyed this "coming of age" movie in a war-torn country, at least it was accurate and not preposterous like James Wood's/Oliver Stone's 1985 "Salvador".

I have just seen the movie here in El Salvador, where I am on vacation. My parents are both Salvadoran, and I have visited here many times, as well as resided here for several years. I remember visiting during war time, seeing soldiers with their guns, though i was a very young child unaware of the true situation.

This movie brought to light the horrible scenes and awful truths of the atrocities that occurred during the war, and that still happen in warfare today. Looking through the eyes of an eleven-year-old child in fear of recruitment, you are brought straight into the war and his life. Everyone in the audience had heard good things about the movie, and in turn agreed; we applauded when the movie was over. There is humor, romance, and of course, tragedy. Some parts were almost unbearable to watch, but then the movie is portraying a reality that we should not and cannot ignore.

I strongly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, and I hope they will soon bring it to the U.S. and abroad.