Movie review
Innocent Voices
Reviewed by Heather Adams
I was recently fortunate enough to attend a screening of the 2004 film Voces Inocentes/Innocent Voices at the Anchorage International Film Screenings on Human Rights hosted by American Red Cross of Alaska AmeriCorps volunteer Cris Nunez. The movie delves into the horrors of children’s participation in armed conflict through the story of Chava, an 11 year-old El Salvadoran during the early years of the nation’s civil unrest.
Civil war spread through El Salvador between the years of 1980 and 1992, a brutal decade that left approximately 75,000 dead. A communist guerilla movement, the Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional or FMLN, took up arms against the US-backed El Salvadoran government. The government made common the practice of rounding up 12-year-olds as involuntary recruits, ripping through quiet villages and school yards in search of those who they felt were old enough to fight the rebels. This practice is still common, according to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, which in 1998 reported that 300,000 children were taking up arms around the world.
The Innocent Voices screenplay was written by first-timer Oscar Torres, and was largely based on his own experience as a young boy in El Salvador during the turbulent civil war years. The Los Angeles-based actor met director Luis Mandoki in 2002, and soon the film was underway. The picture was shot in Mexico, an appropriate backdrop to the juxtaposition of the ingenuous child fighter and the complications of conflict.
Young Carlos Padilla wholly assumes the role of Chava, the protagonist who becomes head of the household after his father relocates to the United States for work. Chava’s wide-eyed curiosity brings great stress to his mother, who understands the appeal of this youthful exuberance to the corrupt government machine. The film is dotted with moments of pristine beauty--from a delicate first kiss to the endless idealism of an 11-year-old imagination--but these familiar moments are uncomfortably couched among the incomprehensible terrors of war. Humans are resilient and sly, and we watch the youngsters of the small town of Cuscatazingo adapt to their stark reality in order to survive. Some of those who are taken as young arms-bearers quickly take up the fight with great fervor, and we begin to see more of the intense implications of children in war.
Despite the sobering tone of the film, Chava remains surprisingly yet believably optimistic, and ultimately triumphant. His humor and love belie his intense maturity and the difficulty of overcoming the death and pain that surrounds him.
Innocent Voices is poised for release in the United States, and won the Seattle Film Festival 2005 Best Film award.
Entertainment Value: 2 1/2 stars
Meaning: 4 stars
Emotional Impact: 3 1/2 stars
Lack of Gratuitous Violence or Sex: 3 1/2 stars
Lack of Advertising: 3 1/2 stars
Overall Quality: 3 stars
Overall Impact: 4 stars
out of 4 stars