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Innocent Voices (2004)

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From Time Out London

This ’80s-set child’s-eye view of the horrific El Salvadoran civil war is obviously a personal project for Mexican-born Hollywood director Luis Mandoki. Based on the memoirs of his co-writer, Oscar Orlando Torres, it stars the excellent Carlos Padilla as 11-year-old Chava, who lives with his single mother (Leonor Varela), sister and brother in a poor shantytown suburb of the capital, later the site of the crushing of a guerrilla rearguard action by repressive government forces.

Employing Hollywood-style technical sophistication – typified by a heightened colour palette and Juan Ruiz-Anchia’s dynamic cinematography – it tells a tale of severely tested normality. As heedless as possible of the constant bombing and automatic gunfire, Chava pursues a schoolroom romance, makes friends with a local bus driver in hope of raising money for his near-destitute family and continues to indulge in naive and dangerous antics (notably his habit of tuning his portable radio to the resistance station and defying the curfew) that have his mother apoplectic with anger and fear (she knows the government is recruiting 12-year-olds into the army). Life-and-death choices loom…

Mandoki adopts a populist approach, pulling hard on the (mainly) maternal heartstrings; and, sadly, his continual overemphasis tends to spoil the charm, pathos or emotional impact of any particular scene, blunts the subtlety of the performances and gives the film a sometimes unwatchable didacticism he clearly never intends. Nevertheless, it’s a laudable aim to try to inform a global audience of the nature of war, suffering and impossible choices; one just wonders if this inherently patronising form of cinema is the best suited to do so.

Author: Wally Hammond

Time Out London Issue 1877: August 2-9 2006

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