by Pradip Biswas
This critic has met Miguel Littin, the rebel director of Chile at least four times in India. He is also a close friend of Mrinal Sen whose films have inspired him a lot. On each occasion, we have renewed our camaraderie and vowed to make and write cinema that has an aesthetic assault on conservative taste. Our friendship is still in tact and grows from strength to strength. A book authored by this critic called CINEMA OF MIGUEL LITTIN is now in the pipeline.
The agitprop director Miguel Littin of Chile has since ripped open the cruelty and wounds of political history of Chile during the era of Salvador Allende, the first communist President of Chile through his latest film on Dawson ISLAND, 10. Based on the diary of a prisoner of war by Sergio Bitar, the film traces the darkest times of Chile when the CIA along with the rabid cruelty of the military Junta overthrew the legitimate, popular Government of Allende, destroying the democratic power-sharing of thousands of Chileans. "A story starts when someone is born, someone dies, someone leaves, or someone arrives."—says director Miguel Littin, quoting Ernest Hemingway. Dawson Island 10 is a cinematic manifesto that highlights the abysmal horrors imposed upon the ministers, senators and deputies of Allende who were banished in a hill-ridden, deserted island by the Military regime backed by CIA.
The digesis of the film exposes the arrival in September 1973 of approximately 50 former Chilean President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity ministers, senators and deputies to Dawson Island, a concentration camp "at the end of the world". The latitude estimated signals 53 South at the western end of the Strait of Magellan—and introduces a political crime largely unknown by the world, let alone most Chileños; a calculated historical omission that acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin sought to redress through his feature film Dawson Island 10 (2009)."We wanted to change history, but destiny led us to this strange sensation of uncertainty and defeat. What did we do wrong? What mistakes did we make?", lamented Sergio Bitar, a Dawson Island prisoner, and author of Isla 10. To bolster the significance of the political film, Baldovino Gomez, Dawson Island prisoner said: "I felt like the protagonist of one of those World War II movies. When we arrived at the camp, some of us cried to see so many wire fences. There were 27. It was difficult to believe”. The film is the first Chilean-Brazilian co-production and likewise represented Chile at Spain's Goya Awards.
While tackling an issue of highly pointed political nature, Littin hinges much on obtaining materials and memoirs related to Jose Tohá whose testimony at the Chile Information Project looks vital and relevant. According to Jose Toha: "The island produced an enormous feeling of isolation, of intense cold, wind, few sunny days. It was a prison, surrounded by water, with absolutely no escape. One of the great things was to be allowed to carve the stones: it relieved the stress and for some brought in some income.” Sharp agonies of the prisoners and their hellish life in concentration island is captured with vibrant authenticity by Littin. Each political character, given his cool and polite tolerance under cannibalistic ruling force, stands out. What is sharply evident is the inhuman tortures and humiliations inflicted on the innocent politicians, more human than humans. A reading into the ensemble visual frames, marked by treachery, damn lies and furious military treatment, tends to acquaint us with the tragic history of betrayals, ignominy, animalism and macabre acts of CIA pulling the strings. All that appears is ghastly, infernal and subhuman. Littin has made it clear in his interview: "that the book and the film were two different bodies, but with the same soul."
The agitprop director Miguel Littin of Chile has since ripped open the cruelty and wounds of political history of Chile during the era of Salvador Allende, the first communist President of Chile through his latest film on Dawson ISLAND, 10. Based on the diary of a prisoner of war by Sergio Bitar, the film traces the darkest times of Chile when the CIA along with the rabid cruelty of the military Junta overthrew the legitimate, popular Government of Allende, destroying the democratic power-sharing of thousands of Chileans. "A story starts when someone is born, someone dies, someone leaves, or someone arrives."—says director Miguel Littin, quoting Ernest Hemingway. Dawson Island 10 is a cinematic manifesto that highlights the abysmal horrors imposed upon the ministers, senators and deputies of Allende who were banished in a hill-ridden, deserted island by the Military regime backed by CIA.
The digesis of the film exposes the arrival in September 1973 of approximately 50 former Chilean President Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity ministers, senators and deputies to Dawson Island, a concentration camp "at the end of the world". The latitude estimated signals 53 South at the western end of the Strait of Magellan—and introduces a political crime largely unknown by the world, let alone most Chileños; a calculated historical omission that acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin sought to redress through his feature film Dawson Island 10 (2009)."We wanted to change history, but destiny led us to this strange sensation of uncertainty and defeat. What did we do wrong? What mistakes did we make?", lamented Sergio Bitar, a Dawson Island prisoner, and author of Isla 10. To bolster the significance of the political film, Baldovino Gomez, Dawson Island prisoner said: "I felt like the protagonist of one of those World War II movies. When we arrived at the camp, some of us cried to see so many wire fences. There were 27. It was difficult to believe”. The film is the first Chilean-Brazilian co-production and likewise represented Chile at Spain's Goya Awards.
While tackling an issue of highly pointed political nature, Littin hinges much on obtaining materials and memoirs related to Jose Tohá whose testimony at the Chile Information Project looks vital and relevant. According to Jose Toha: "The island produced an enormous feeling of isolation, of intense cold, wind, few sunny days. It was a prison, surrounded by water, with absolutely no escape. One of the great things was to be allowed to carve the stones: it relieved the stress and for some brought in some income.” Sharp agonies of the prisoners and their hellish life in concentration island is captured with vibrant authenticity by Littin. Each political character, given his cool and polite tolerance under cannibalistic ruling force, stands out. What is sharply evident is the inhuman tortures and humiliations inflicted on the innocent politicians, more human than humans. A reading into the ensemble visual frames, marked by treachery, damn lies and furious military treatment, tends to acquaint us with the tragic history of betrayals, ignominy, animalism and macabre acts of CIA pulling the strings. All that appears is ghastly, infernal and subhuman. Littin has made it clear in his interview: "that the book and the film were two different bodies, but with the same soul."
For the entire write up follow the link : http://www.thescape.in/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1515
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