FILM FESTIVAL

SALVADOR. A Vancouver International
Film Festival offering starring James
Woods, James Belushi, Michael Murphy
and John Savage. Directed by Oliver
- Stone. At the Hollywood Theatre, June 7,
9:30 p.m. At the Ridge, June 18, 7 p.m.
“History is the enemy of writers,”
‘responded one of the writers of the truly
bizarre Ivan The Terrible, a recently
broadcast miniseries, to objections regard-
ing liberties the program had taken with
historical fact. Hollywood’s conception of

Nicarguan contras: reality unmasked in
U.S. production of LATINO.

Films

drama has always pitted it against history,
but Salvador, the most recent of a new
genre of films about reporters in revolu-

tionary situations, avoids many of the.

problems provoked by this conflict.
Salvador successfully integrates the sub-

LATINO. At the Vancouver International
Film Festival. With Robert Beltran,
Annette Cordona, Tony Plana and Luis
Torrentes. At the Vancouver East Cinema,
June 8, 7 pm.

How does a movie that labors through
some turgid scenes and stilted dialogue
still leave the viewer drenched in emotion?
By bringing the story of the war in Central
America to the screen with a vitality and
partisan passion unseen in a typical Hol-
lywood production.

Latino follows the path of a Chicano
Green Beret from his Los Angeles home
to the “Contra” bases in Honduras to
mercenary raids inside Nicarauga. In his
travels, Eddie Guerrero, the 34-year-old
veteran of counterinsurgency battles in
Vietnam, encounters Marlena, a Nicara-
guan woman exiled from her homeland,
and a young Nicaraugan boy, Luis, stolen
by the Contras from his farming co-
operative home.

The story revolves around the three
characters and how they respond to adver-
sity and the rapidly changing circumstan-
ces of their lives.

For Guerrero, the strikingly handsome,

Salvador — from Hollywood with vision

jective experiences of individual protago-
nists, something Hollywood is okay at
doing, with something Hollywood is gen-
erally incapable of grasping: the larger his-
torical forces which .determine and are
determined by individuals’ beliefs and
behavior.

Based on the experiences of journalist
Richard Boyle, Salvador does not reduce
history to the personal, nor does it render
history without causes. There are people in
this film who represent contending forces
in the political/social/economic situation

A rare glimpse of the contras’ war

self-assured soldier, the evolution is grea-
test. He begins to see the Nicaraguan peo-
ple not as enemies but as people. He rebels
at being used by white commanding offic-
ers as a Weapon against his brown brothers
and sisters. Guerrero’s maturation is
handled believably, and with subtlety.

A transformation also occurs for
Marlena who begins to question the com-
forts she has accumulated in Honduras
while across the river her family and peo-
ple struggle for survival. Luis is portrayed
as the strongest character in the film; his
vigor, resistance, and love serve as a meta-
phor for the revolution.

Though fiction, Latino tells a real
story — the brutality of the Contras; the
role of the U.S. in arming, directing, and
even leading the mercenaries into battle;
and the spirit of the Nicaraguan people.

Because of its uncompromising stance,
Latino has already hit a roadblock. No
major studio would touch the distribution
and now that it’s showing as part of the
film festival, better see it quick. While
you’re at it, bring your friends, your
neighbors, and a handkerchief.

— Chuck Idelson
People’s World

It would simplify things too much

of El Salvador and make decisions, ©
consequences of which we see.

I was surprised that the film Ww"
good as it was. I assumed that )
Stone, the writer of Midnight Ex?”
Conan the Barbarian, Scarface and ¥@
of the Dragon was incapable of pf
ing, writing, and directing such a work :
Salvador.

It is an unrelenting and comp
exarhination of the situation in El
dor between the election of Ronald
gan and his inauguration — a pet
which changes in U.S. policy wer
nent.

Richard Boyle, self-confessed “We
and frequently out-of-work joum™
returns to El Salvador during this P®
to.escape a mess ofa life and to find ™

that he finds personal commitmel!
truth, part of that truth being the ext?”
U.S. involvement with the forces of f¢?
sion. This is what the usual Ho
protagonist finds.

What we, through him, begin to 8
the relationship between the subse
and the objective — that the individ
nothing unless she/he is an actor #
history of her/his people. ‘

Salvador is a controversial film. Ra®
is not. For this reason, I believe
should refrain from subjecting this
a fine-toothed analysis of factual a¢
or political correctness (a few
bothered me) and encourage peoplet
it. I’m not an idealist who believes
massive “vote” at the box office
Hollywood to make more progi*”
films, but we might as well let them ka0”
through the paltry. means available,
we support such undertakings aS
dor.

homed

Fantasy, drama, and documentaries
offered at international film festival

Everything form fantasy to political doc-
umentary is on the table for cinema buffs as
the Vancouver International Film Festival
offers its fifth annual relief from Rambo-
mania this spring. .

Running until June 25 at five Vancouver
theatres are close to 300 films from around
the world. A series of passes which allow
viewing at prices well below the theatre
standard are available, although the festival
cautions these do not guarantee seating, and
urges early attendance.

Several of the festival’s films stand out for
their social and political pertinence. We
can’t begin to do justice to all of them, but
here are a few of the more noteworthy offer-

Ings:

@ The Red Countess (Hungary), a tribute
to Katinka Karolyi, who with her husband,
Count Nihaly Karolyi, sided with the revo-
lutionary forces in early 20th century Hun-
gary. At the Hollywood, June 21, 7 p.m.,
and the Ridge, June 24, 7 p.m.

@ Perinbaba (Czechoslovakia), an ambi-
tious live-action fantasy from a country
famous for that type of cinema. At the
Ridge, June 1, 1:30 p.m., and the Dunbar,
June 15, 7 p.m.;

© Leo Tolstoy (USSR), an account of the
last days of the renowned Russian aristocrat
and author who spent his. declining years
among the peasants. At the Dunbar, June 7,
9:30 p.m., and the Ridge, June 18, 9:30 p.m.;

© The Half-Metre Incident (Syria), con-
cerning love colliding with bureaurcracy
and concepts of war. At the Varsity, June 6,
9:30 p.m., and the Hollywood, June 23, 7:30
p.m.;

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 4, 1986

@ Final Offer (Canada), the National
Film Board’s acclaimed documentary of
the recent marathon battle waged by the
United Auto Workers and its then-
Canadian director (now president) Bob
White, against the big auto makers’ conces-
sions drive and the heel-dragging of the
former parent union in the United States.
At the Dunbar, June 6, 7 p.m.;

@ Fran (Australia), in which a single par-
ent tries unsuccessfully to keep the welfare
department out of her family’s life. At the
Ridge, June 10, 7 p.m.;

© Donkey Skin (USSR), a fantasy for
children and adults by veteran Soviet direc-
tor Madeshda Koschewerowa. At the Hol-
lywood, June 10, 7 p.m., and again on June
15, 1:30 p.m.;

© Come and See (USSR), an acclaimed
film in which a young Russian boy must
cross Nazi-occupied territory during World
War Il. At the Ridge, June 9, 9:30 p.m., and
the Dunbar, June 10, 9:30 p.m.;

@ Las Madres (U.S.), a film which,
through its rendering of how a group of 14
mothers of “disappeared” persons camping
outside the presidential palace in Argentina
became a mass protest, shows how the dic-
tatorship was eventually defeated. At the
Ridge, June 19, 9:30 p.m.;

© The Patience of Rosa L. (West Ger-
many), famed director Margarethe Von
Trotta’s account of the life of German revo-
lutionary Rosa Luxemburg. At the Van-
couver East Cinema, June 5, 9:30 p.m., and
the Ridge, June 6, 9:30 p.m.;

@ Canada’s Sweetheart (Canada), a film
originally televised on the CBC which does

not go into much detail about its victim, the
Canadian Seamen’s Union, but does a good
job exposing how the federal government
brought in American gangster Hal Banks
and the Seamen’s International Union to
break the back of the democratic, left-led
national union. At the Ridge, June 7, 7 p.m.

Advance tickets are available at the
Ridge, 3131 Arbutus St. For more informa-
tion, phone the festival at 738-0400.

CLOSE OUT
SALE

All Soviet imports,
gift items
at great discounts.

Come into Ukrainska Knyha
for that special gift at
low, low prices.

We will close our doors
at end of June.

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2677 E. Hastings St.
Telephone: 253-3032

1391 Commercial Driv®
Vancouver, B.C. VSL 3
Telephone: 253-6442

PATTISON — Portrait’
a Capitalist Superstar
By Russel Kelly $5

AMWAY — The Cult of
_Free Enterprise gf
By Steve Butterfield $4”

| WOMEN BRAVE IN TH!
FACE OF DANGER. _
Photographs of and wii!
by Latin and North

American women. By _ 5
Margaret Randall $197)!

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