Filmed Struggle

EL SALVADOR doesn't sell newspapers like it used to. A civil war still rages there, but the bulk of mainstream media editorials and news stories in the last few months have shifted their focus to other wars, other crises. Perhaps Americans have a limited attention span; perhaps the nightly television news reports about the war started to look like re-runs. In any case, two new documentaries about the turmoil--and the first such films actually made by Salvadorans--will be shown in Cambridge this weekend, and they provide a view of the conflict which it is hard to imagine any foreign reporter or analyst matching.

Over 30,000 people have died in El Salvador since 1979, when leftist guerillas, industrial workers and peasant farmers began a battle against a U.S.-backed junta that overthrew one military government and installed another. The chief antagonists in the war are the government's security forces and the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN), a coalition of five rebel groups which is named for a Salvadoran populist leader of the 30's.

Cero a la Izquierda, a collective of Salvadoran filmmakers, produced these documentaries about the war and its effects on life in the FMLA-controlled Morazan region in northeastern El Salvador. The first, Morazan, depicts the running of a makeshift outdoor guerilla munitions camp. It opens with a group of teenagers solemnly passing out rifles and pistols, which they then use in mock-combat drills. The fact that the FMLA would allow the filming of a place where their guns and bombs are produced plainly indicates the political orientation of the filmmakers. But this in no way detracts from the value of these inside glimpses of the revolutionary movement, which include footage of a baby-faced 13-year-old absent-mindedly ticking off the names of weapons he knows how to use.

Lucio Lleras, one of the filmmakers, pointed out in a recent interview that the war has forced every citizen, "not just filmakers but writers, photographers, singers, who were not involved, to take positions." Cero al Izquierda's position earned it the trust of FMLA leaders, whose "liberated zone" of Morazan remains in constant danger of attack from the government. This danger, and the tenuous position of the guerillas even in their own stronghold, is woven throughout the second, feature-length film. Decision To Win--The First Fruits.

Decision to Win emphasizes that the popular image of guerillas as a loosely-organized group of men, isolated from the general population, is simply wrong. Farmers, doctors, tailors, teachers and cooks in Morazan are all shown performing the vital and often startlingly mundane activities that sustain the guerilla effort. The dedication shown by these people and the growing support for the movement depicted in the film constitute the fruits of the title.

Decision To Win shows the interplay between the military side of the FMLA and the support work done by older men, women and children. It includes an astounding live battle sequence shot as the FMLA defeated government fighters and took over the town of Perquin in July 1981. Mixed in with the war scenes is footage of children playing and running around ("last one there's a fascist!"), and a soccer game momentarily interrupted by a government helicopter passing overhead.

Superb cinematography helped Decision To Win gather awards last year in Germany, Spain, France and Latin America. But technical expertise aside, the American premiere of Decision to Win may rekindle some interest in the now subdued debate over the millions of U.S. dollars spent to support the Salvadoran government.