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FILMS OF WAR & REVOLUTIONARY
TIMES
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La Ley de Herodes
(Herod's Law)
Luis
Estrada
Mexico -
1999 |
After the corrupt former Mayor is killed by the peasants, poor janitor
Juan Vargas is appointed new Mayor of a desert town in central Mexico.
Although he tries to bring the motto of the ruling party to town
(modernity, peace and progress) he realizes soon that there's nothing to
do against corruption... except to become corrupt. Step by step, helped
by his pistol, Juan Vargas becomes the law and the worst Major in the
town's history. |
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Voces Inocentes
(Innocent Voices) |
A young boy, in an effort to have a normal childhood in 1980's El
Salvador, is caught up in a dramatic fight for his life as he
desperately tries to avoid the war which is raging all around him. |
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Luis Mandoki |
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El Salvador -
2004 |
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AY Carmela
(Carmela)
Carlos
Saura
Spain -
1990 |
Paulino and Carmela are husband and wife, troubadours touring the
countryside during the Spanish Civil War. They are Republicans, and with
their mute assistant, Gustavete, they journey into rebel territory by
mistake. They are arrested, fear a firing squad, and receive a reprieve
from an Italian Fascist commander who loves the theatre. He arranges a
performance for his troops, bargaining with Paulino to stage a burlesque
of the republic in exchange for the actors' freedom. Will the fiery and
patriotic Carmela consent? |
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La Lengua de Las Mariposas
(The Tongue of the Butterflies)
Jose Luis Cuerda
Spain -
1999 |
For Moncho, it's an idyllic year: he starts school, he has a wonderful
teacher, he makes a friend in Roque, he begins to figure out some of the
mysteries of Eros, and, with his older brother, a budding saxophone
player, he makes a trip with the band from their town in Galicia. But
it's also the year that the Spanish Republic comes under fire from
Fascist rebels. Moncho's father is a Republican as is the aging teacher,
Don Gregorio. As sides are drawn and power falls clearly to one side,
the forces of fear, violence, and betrayal alter profoundly what should
be the pleasure of coming of age. |
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Machuca
(Machuca)
Andres Wood
Spain -
2004
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In 1973, in Santiago of Chile of the first socialist president
democratically elected in a Latin-American country, President Salvador
Allende, the principal of the Saint Patrick School, Father McEnroe
(Ernesto Malbran) makes a trial of integration between students of the
upper and lower classes. The bourgeois boy Gonzalo Infante (Matías Quer)
and the boy from the slum Pedro Machuca (Ariel Mateluna) become great
friends, while the conflicts on the streets leads Chile to the bloody
and repressive military coup of General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September
1973, changing definitely their lives, their relationship and their
country. |
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Soldados de Salamina
(Salamina Soldiers)
David Truba
Spain -
2003 |
When the professor and writer Lola Sánchez (Ariadna Gil) is assigned to
write a column in the newspaper about the Spanish Civil War, she
researches and finds for the first time about the shooting of Rafael
Sánchez Mazas (Ramon Fontserč). Lola has lost her passion for writing,
and she becomes intrigued about Rafael, who was a writer and journalist
that returned to Spain from the Italy of Mussolini and founded the
fascist party Spanish Falange, becoming advisor of the leader Jose
Antonio Primo de Rivera. When the lefts won the election in 1936, the
Falange became illegal, and later there was a military coup d'stat.
Rafael miraculously escaped from the shooting and was spared by an
unknown soldier. |
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En el Tiempo
de Las mariposas
(In the Time of the Butterflies)
Mariano Barroso
USA -
2001 |
On November 25, 1960, the bodies of three sisters were found near the
bottom of a cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The
official daily 'El Caribe' reports that it had been an accident, but it
does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it mention the
sisters' fierce opposition to the General Trujillo's dictatorship. This
is their story: how Minerva started the tragedy by refusing Trujillo;
how Patria became an opponent from the church itself; how Maria Teresa
joined the revolution through the love. And how they lost their wings,
but not their courage. They were Las Mariposas - "The Butterflies". |
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"Che"
(Ernesto "Che " Guevara)
Steven Soderbergh
USA -
2008 |
In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) and a band of
Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of
dictator Fulgencio Batista. |
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