Cinema
El silencio de Neto
Luis Argueta · 1994
Synopsis
Neto Yepes, twelve years old, asthmatic and overprotected by his family, is visited by the ghost of his uncle Ernesto at the latter's funeral; their conversation takes the boy back six months, to June 1954, the last days of the Árbenz government. Between a father, Eduardo, who puts the family before everything, and an uncle who has travelled the world to find himself and urges him towards adventure, Neto grows up in a house where everyone keeps silent, while the clandestine radio accuses the government of obeying Moscow.
Context
The film was shot in Guatemala City and Antigua, from a screenplay by the author and Justo Chang, and presented at the Sundance festival. It evokes the coup without showing it, through background sounds: the newsreel Guatemala Flash, the insurgents' clandestine radio, the president's speeches; it also touches on the everyday racism of a middle-class family towards its Indian maid. A 2005 documentary retraced the twenty years that preceded its shooting.
Who it is for
A film of one hour forty-six minutes, in Spanish. Some background on 1954 and on the United Fruit Company is useful.
Prizes and reception
The first film submitted by Guatemala for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1995, it was not selected among the nominees.