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When the Mountains Tremble (1983)

Director: Pamela Yates, Thomas Sigel

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A documentary with a dramatic framework, made by a team which provides CBS News coverage of Guatemala, this tells the story of 30 years of US-initiated and backed military dictatorships in that country, through the family saga of Rigoberta Menchú, the Indian peasant woman narrator, whose father and brother were both burned alive by security forces. Made with the cooperation of both government and guerrillas, it is perhaps strongest in presenting attitudes: from the brutal, no-nonsense frankness of the military, through the even more repulsive blinkered stupidity of Americans, to the desperation of the poor and the optimism of the guerillas. With El Salvador: Another Vietnam and John Pilger's Nicaragua documentary, this helps to complete the picture of a region to which America, not Russia, is exporting revolution.

Author: JCo

Time Out Film Guide

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jack houston, antigua guatemala said...

Posted on Nov 17 2007 14:48 this film probably was helpful when it was produced 25 years ago, based on information at that time. But we all know more about this period now, including the fact that rigoberta's brother didn't die the way she describes in her book, which also includes many other legends and untruths for the purpose of getting out her story about her people. so this film today only confuses the issues, unless it is placed in the light of updated information.

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