Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Taha Avalos
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
drhupp
I have now seen this movie twice and I have greatly enjoyed it both times. It is more of a suspenseful movie as you have to wait for things to work themselves out. Chava was definitely my favorite character in the movie even though he was a bit stubborn at times. I've never seen a movie that has a plot relating to this one, where once you turn 12 you are taken to the military and forced to fight against rebel forces. That sounds terrifying to me as I think back on my twelve year old self. I couldn't do that! It's very easy to tell that this is nothing like an American film because for one, speaking Spanish, and the cultural values are much different than that of Americans. Overall, I liked this movie and how it is based off a true event that took place in El Salvador and I wouldn't change the ending at all as Chava was reunited with his mother.
Rolando Bz
One of the best movies out there on the caste war effects on the lives of a family in El Salvador. The dad leaves the family to go to the USA, supposedly to help them. Chabita, the elven year old child, is confronted by the military force backed by the USA who are recruiting kids for the war against the guerrillas. It's in Spanish but I suspect there is an English subtitle on DVD. The scenes with the priest is also interesting as it allows us to appreciate the role of liberation theology during the caste war. *An emotional film worth seeing especially for us in Belize given our experience with the movement of peoples to this territory due to exploitive interests and wars.
gradyharp
INNOCENT VOICES (Voces inocentes) is a 2004 film from Mexico that relates a true story about he civil war in El Salvador from 1980 - 1992. It is based on a story by Oscar Orlando Torres who co-wrote the screenplay with director Luis Mandoki. It is a disturbing film in that in addition to relating the terror of living in a land where war raises it's spectral head randomly at day or night, but the focus of the film is on the fact that once boys reached the age of twelve years they were forcibly conscripted to become killing soldiers.According to the way history books have defined this war, 'The Salvadoran Civil War (1980- 1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or umbrella organization of five left-wing guerrilla groups. Significant tensions and violence had already existed, before the civil war's full outbreak, over the course of the 1970s. El Salvador's Civil War was the second longest civil war in Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War. The United States supported the Salvadoran military dictatorship. The conflict ended in the early 1990s. Countless disappeared and More than 75,000 people were killed.'The story is brought to life by following a young boy Chava (Carlos Padilla in an outstanding performance) whose father left El Salvador for the US in 1980 leaving Chava as the man of the house for this mother Kella (Leonor Varela, in another fine performance) and his brother and sister. The story plays day by day as the bombs and shooting threaten the family and disperses them, results in the death of come of Chava's friends, the influence of Chava's Uncle Beto (José María Yazpik) and his fellow kind guerrilla Raton (Héctor Jiménez), the courage of the village Priest (Daniel Giménez Cacho), and the innocence of the village mentally challenged Fito (Jorge Angel Toriello). It is a tale of fear, devastation, and resilience on the part of Chava's family and fellow villagers. And once again it shows us, the audience, how blindly cruel war is, and that in the end there are no winners.The photography and musical score enhance the film's message, but it is the brilliance of the acting of this crew of actors that makes the film touch the heart so profoundly. Grady Harp
annahauser2000
Stunning film about the Salvadoran Civil War, told through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy, who, once he hits twelve, will be rounded up with other children and forced into military service, fighting for the US supported government. As shocking as the reality of the subject matter is, the film plays out peppered with good humor as we watch this mischievous little boy and his similarly mischievous friends carry on being children in spite of the horrors unfolding around them. Watching and laughing at these charming children brings a weight of sadness as we know they will soon have to grow up or die.Because the impoverished locals didn't stand a chance against the U.S. funded military machine of El Salvador, they had to resort to guerrilla warfare, which in turn prompted the creation of US sponsored death squads whose role was to spread terror amongst the locals. They did this by killing over 75,000 innocent people.
