Educational Media Reviews Online

The Search of this production concerns the search for remains of individuals killed during the twenty-year war in Peru between Marxist guerillas of the Shining Path and the Government of Peru. Estimates range that up to 70,000 perished in this war from 1980-2000. The individuals who are the focus of this film perished in a massacre which occurred in a remote Andean village in 1984. The film follows Dolores Guzmán as she helps to identify the remains of her own relatives and neighbors. We see forensic experts work on identifying these remains, from exhuming the remains to laying them out on tables. Also profiled are Lurgio Gavilán, who, as a child, was pressed into service by both the government and the guerillas, and José Carlos Agüero whose parents were leaders in the Shining Path and works at reconciling his parent’s ideals with their actions. One of the concluding scenes of the film is the mass funeral and burial for the victims.

The stories these individuals tell are disturbing and one may be somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of violence which all these individuals endured and also inflicted. There is no narration for the film – all the individuals speak for themselves. However, there can be something unsettling about a film such as this which tries not to place any blame. One may wish to have some resolution or closure but often there is no resolution. There are tragic events in life and the survivors persevere.

The film is beautifully filmed but the scenes of identifying the remains may be disturbing to some. No technical flaws were found in this production. Sound and picture quality were all well done. The spoken languages are Spanish and Quechua with yellow English subtitles, which are easy to read.