Educational Media Reviews Online

This is the story of a community of survivors who left the avalanche destroyed city of Yungay in the mountains and settled in the jungle on the other side of the Andes in the early 1970s. They named their new settlement Paraiso/Paradise, and government aid sustained them for a time. When that support dried up they found wild coca in the hills and began to market it. Drug lords from Columbia came in, bribed officials, and developed the town into one with seven airports where everyone was rich. By the early 1980s, the Sendero Luminoso/Shining Path discovered them and began controlling the people by identifying them, making rules, and organizing their time. Public executions were designed to intimidate the remaining populace. The most powerful drug lord with the largest compound went against the Shining Path, and was rescued by a military helicopter in a great battle, which began the ‘war’ that destroyed Paradise. The government bombed the area from planes, while the Shining Path massacred on the ground. This is a beautifully shot, slow building slice of history. Most all the commentary comes from people who experienced the events and who have an intelligent perspective, giving the entire account an intense authenticity. Their philosophical perspective on the victimization of peasants by overarching national goals and struggles—in this case, a major disaster, the U.S. drug war, and terrorist insurgents—is hard won and moving because of its compression in so few generations. The filmmaker uses the ruins of the abandoned town effectively, though now again people are returning for the “good land.” Songs reinforce: “The stronger the illusion, the more it destroys me. . .” Highly recommended, especially for academic collections as a source of oral history.