Educational Media Reviews Online

Based on CIA documents declassified in 2007, Etzel Baez’ 339 Amin Abel Hasbun: Memory of a Crime depicts the murder of political dissident Amin Abel Hasbun by a Dominican Republic death squad operating under the repressive regime of CIA supported President Joaquin Balaguer.

Following a brief textual introduction describing American direct involvement during the Cold War in ruthless measures throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to eliminate anyone suspected of having revolutionary sympathies, the film is structured around testimony given by witnesses called to testify in the government cover-up inquiry regarding the events of September 24, 1970, when Amin Hasbun and his household received a fatal visit from police and the local assistant district attorney.

The testimony of most witnesses is preceded by flashbacks of their memories of that night. First to appear is Amin’s very pregnant wife, Mirna Santos, who recalls her husband’s recounting a dream of his own funeral just before the police show up. She is remarkably composed throughout the questioning, until she sees clearly what a mockery the proceedings are, and while fighting back tears, demands a thorough investigation and justice for her family.

Following his remembrance of that night’s screams and gunshots, the lieutenant in charge of the police raid is then summoned in to be the first of many to deny actually being an immediate witness to the crime. He is also the first to name the man who will become the scapegoat for the murder. Claiming to have considered the routine physical search of a detainee unnecessary in the particular case, he clumsily follows the attorney general’s leading questions into implying that Amin might have been hiding a gun under his shirttail.

Next is the sergeant who posits the fatal gunshot to the back of the victim’s head as being the result of a “zig-zag” attempt at escape after first having fired upon the police. He also blames his lieutenant for not having ordered Amin frisked, and refuses to answer a question involving the busted lip Amin gave him in the struggle to avoid being dragged out to his death.

After Private Hermogenes Acosta’s flashback of the wife’s screaming to be let out of the locked apartment, he denies the door’s ever having been closed, and incredibly claims he didn’t know Amin had a gun until he saw him loading it, and explains how he avoided being shot himself by a “zig-zag” maneuver when Amin opened fire. One doesn’t wonder he was picked for fall guy.

Nervously chain smoking Assistant District Attorney Tucidedes Howley reflects on Amin’s demanding that, instead of leaving the scene to place a phone call, he remain with the family as their only protection from the police. Howley visibly calms down though as he launches into what sounds like the most carefully constructed testimony of the investigation. Contradicting the others, he says that Amin was initially searched and found to be unarmed, and claims he needed to make the phone call to authorize Mirna’s demand to accompany her husband to the police station. Hearing gunshots on his way back to the apartment, he saw the wife on the balcony “yelling and ranting” and found Amin on the floor, “drenched in blood” with a gun “either in his hand or by his side.” Although he claims, for personal health reasons, to have been unable to have stayed and examine the body, he asserts that before leaving the scene with the police he demanded they return to their headquarters with him to immediately document what happened.

Private Beriguete testifies that one of the men (the sergeant) “went crazy” and fired several shots into the dead body. Inwardly, he recalls being ordered to fetch the throw down gun, and to “arrange the body” after the shooting.

Next up, the maid gives the most detailed and believable testimony, denying seeing any firearms in the house since starting work there, recounts the sergeant’s frisking Amin, and the lawyer’s declaration of needing to make a phone call immediately upon entering the apartment. Through her eyes, we see Amin’s demand that the lawyer remain with the family as their only hope of safety from the police, and his brave attempt to calm his crying son and wife after the man leaves anyway. The police soon reenter and confront Amin with the planted gun, hustle him out the door, and lock the family into the apartment. She recounts the sound of repeated gunfire, Mirna’s screams for help from the balcony, and the police on the street below making a journalist leave the scene after he screams out that they’ve killed Amin. Finally, the lieutenant unlocks the door, orders the family to come with him to the police station, and walks them down the blood soaked stairs over the bullet ridden body of Amin Hasbun.

Throughout the procession of witnesses, while Attorney General Marino Hernandez appears at times to be incredulous, one comes to mostly suspect him of orchestrating a zig-zag travesty of justice, and is not surprised when the stenographer faints in shock during his dictation of the face-saving official report of the incident.

Despite the film’s ham-fisted symbolism of objects on the set being wildly askew, and the ominous mood music occasionally so intrusive it obscures the dialogue, I would recommend this film to adult and young adult audiences alike, especially as an educational vehicle accompanied by open discussion.

The official selection for the 2015 Dominican Global Film Festival, 339 Amin Abel Hasbun: Memory of a Crime, has since been featured at Latin American film festivals worldwide.