“Granito: How to Nail a Dictator,” which plays at the St. Louis International Film Festival tomorrow, is a political diatribe. That said, with its implicit warning, it’s also a gripping, well-made film about the continuing, brutal civil war in Guatemala. Pamela Yates wrote and directed the movie, which includes interviews with activist Rigoberta Manchu and others.
Granito” is, in effect, a sort-of sequel to Yates’ 1984 feature, “When the Mountains Tremble,” about the same war. Countless thousands of people have died, and the war continues. As happens too often, the United States is a major backer of the regime which keeps attempting to put the peasants in their place, but there’s little discussion of that. On the other hand, Yates’ often self-serving movie certainly emphasizes the side she’s on.
Manchu, who narrated the earlier film, won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, but recently, she has come under much criticism for her speeches and writings, with well-documented comments about false and misleading material in her autobiography, “I, Rigoberta Manchu.”
This writer is neither defending nor attacking Manchu, but those who attend the screening should be aware that her integrity is being questioned.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator plays at noon tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 13, in Brown Hall on the Washington U. campus.
—Joe