
Synopsis
Civil war broke out in El Salvador in 1979 and raged for the following twelve years, leaving thousands of dead and disappeared in its wake. Whole towns and villages were destroyed by the army and literally wiped off the country’s official maps. In this film we hear from five families who returned to what had been their hometown to find nothing left standing. The old town square had piles of bones everywhere. But the townsfolk banded together and began to put the pieces back together. Life began anew among the nightmares and wounds of a terrible civil war. The characters we meet here, famers in a mainly guerrilla town, try to carry on with their lives, sowing their crops and tending to their animals, with the dead ever present in their minds.
In her debut documentary feature, which competed in the official section at l'Alternativa 2011, Tatiana Huezo tells a compelling story of humans’ capacity to pick themselves up, rebuild their lives and reinvent themselves. A tale of people who have learnt to live with their pain in a devastated village that rose again from the ashes. A remarkable first film which already hinted at many ideas that would later become recurring features of Huezo’s work.
- Production Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica
- Distribution Centro de Capacitación Cinematrográfica
- Screenplay Tatiana Huezo
- Cinematography Ernesto Pardo
- Editing Paulina del Paso, Lucrecia Gutiérrez, Tatiana Huezo
- Music Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Liberman
- Sound Federico González
- Cast Elba Escalante, Pablo Alvarenga, Armando Aguilar, Rosi Alvarenga, Rudy Espinoza, Orlando Aguilar, Belyini Barahona
- Contact claudia@elccc.com.mx
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Festivals
- Visions du Réel 2011 (Grand Prix)
- Palm Springs International Film Festival 2012 (John Schlesinger Prize)
- Documenta Madrid 2011 (Audience Award)
- Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2011 (Best Latin American Film)
- Monterrey International Film Festival 2011 (Best Mexican Film and Audience Award)
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