Film Forum

(1974, Jorge Sanjinés) Or… Imperialism. After a landowner beheads an Indian peasant in front of his family, enraged campesinos seek justice first with a nearby court, then a band of guerillas, before the American-backed army steps in. First film Sanjinés made in exile in Peru (after the coup which brought General Banzer’s right-wing government to power in Bolivia). An exercise in collective filmmaking, “the peasants used the filming to break the silence of oppression and speak openly, saying to the judge and the boss in the film what they wanted to say to their counterparts in reality” (Sanjinés). Digital. Approx. 98 min.