Innocent Voices wins Seattle film award

Innocent Voices, the movie about a boy caught between the warring factions in El Salvador's civil war, won the best picture award at the
Seattle International Film Festival. Now if the film could just find a US distributor so that it can appear in more places than the occasional film festival.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I live in El Salvador and saw a copy of Voces Inocentes and liked it. I thought it was very well done. What I find interesting though is the comments I've heard from the people here who lived through that era. The one recurring comment I heard from almost everyone was that it only told one side. The atrocities of the army were well documented but not those of the FMLN. Young boys disappeared and were drafted by both sides during the war apparently. I spoke with a man in Tepetitan who has been in a wheelchair after his army patrol was ambushed by the FMLN during the war, and he called it science fiction. Most people here seemed to enjoy it, and were touched deeply by it, but I also sensed a current of resentment that it only told half the story. Would it have been as well received had it told the whole truth?
11:21 PM
Anonymous said…
Interesting comment. The film is very much a P.O.V. film of one boy's experience during that time, that of the author. Characters were condensed (several into one), but it was all real, the war seen through the eyes of a child. In the world of children, adults are somewhat peripheral.

This was one man's memory of his childhood there.

I wish more people here in the U.S. could and would see it.

The funniest comment we heard, at a screening with the director, writer, and main character, well, question actually, was "Do you think this is suitable to show children?" as she did not.

The boy who plays the central role, who was ten when it was filmed and twelve at the screening, took the question, saying of course it was suitable for children; in essence, he wanted to make the film for other children, as a way of making them aware of the world and developing a social conscience, not just being mindlessly entertained.

He is both a tremendous actor and a tremendous person -- already.
9:41 PM
Post a Comment