Voces Innocentes

Sometimes a movie can be a life changing experience, it can jolt you out of your very existence and question the world you live in. It is not often that you come across cinema that transcends all barriers, national, linguistic, social, cultural and connects right to your heart. You don't need a language to understand it, you just need a heart.

Voces Innocentes (Innocent Voices) is a movie based in El Salvador during the 1980s amidst the Civil War between the US army and the FMNL( Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) and depicts the atrocities of war on innocent El Salvadorians. The story is narrated through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy Chava who lives with his family; a mother, and two siblings in a village in El Salvador that is caught between the guerrilla war between the two fronts. His father has abandoned the family and left for a safe life in USA, and the 11-year-old innocently assumes the responsibility of the 'Man of the House'.

At 11, when a typical boy should be in school enjoying his classes, playing with friends and be safe from atrocities like war, Chava is growing up in a war stricken El Salvador. Yet that does not seem to affect his playful spirit and his zeal to live. Once, when his mother is away for work, the village is caught between firing between US troops and guerillas irrespective of the innocent villagers. He gets his siblings together, gets under the bed, and rolls over the mattress along the wall to save his brother and sister. The mom comes back horrified, yet glad to see her kids alive. After a visit to her mother, she decides to give up her job and work from home. Chava finds an odd job as a bus conductor after school that fetches him a few bucks to support his family.

His uncle who had been missing for a couple of years returns, and lifts the hope for the family. He is a guerilla and speaks to Chava about the war and asks him to join their front once he turns 12. He gives Chava, a much cherished gift, a radio that gives information on the guerilla war, but is banned and thus he needs to hide from the US troops.

The story takes a turn when US troops come to their school, and take away 10 terrified school boys between the age of 12-13 years to train them and make them join the army. Chava is miserable for his friend who has been taken away but is even more terrified at the prospect of turning 12 and meeting the same fate. Like a child he forgets about it for a little while, develops a crush on Christina Maria, his teacher's daughter. As much he likes going to school and being with her, situation turns from bad to worse. There is a crossfire at the school between the guerillas and the army and the school is shut down. The priest of the Church who is with the guerillas is beaten up for letting them take shelter in the Church. Next day when the villagers come to pray at the Church, they find it closed, the priest gives an emotional speech saying its not just the prayers that will help anymore.

Back in the village, with no school, and life in uncertainty, Chava is informed by his uncle's friend about the upcoming army recruitment taking boys of all ages. He quickly with the help of his friends writes the note on a piece of paper and slides under every door. The little boys climb the roofs of their houses, distraught, quiet and scared. The US troops return after finding no boys but discover that their plan had been leaked. A few days later they come again, take away little boys, but Chava escapes. That night he decides to join the guerillas just like his uncle and fight against this war because as his grandmother once tells him in the movie, 'It will get worse before it gets better.'

He leaves with 2 of his friends and finds his way to the guerilla camp, however their movement is intersected by the US troops and they fire at the camp and kidnap him and his friends. Meanwhile, an exodus begins from his village to a safer area and his mother, siblings and grandmother find him missing. They nevertheless collect their belongings and set out on their journey. Midway, his mother, runs back to search for him. Chava, on the other hand is being taken to a 'death camp' where guerilla and their supporters have been killed and hung by the troops. The US soldiers shoot his two friends one by one, and just as they are about to pull the trigger on him, the guerillas start firing from the jungle. He gets an opportunity and considers killing a US troop from the rifle a dead guerilla troop but even though he feels the rage, anger and revenge, he cannot fire. He escapes and runs back to his house finding it burnt but is reunited with his mother.

The story is moving, and you see the eyes of the world through a 11 year old child. There are several instances where you don't want to believe that these things can happen to little children, to innocent people, to harmless citizens, but they do. It is the story of undying human spirit and the death of childhood. It makes you question American imperialism, rampant destruction of human life and the urge to live till people accept war as normal business and go about living their normal lives. Where life hangs delicately and you don't know if you will survive the day when you wake up. As the powerful background score of a song banned in the film:


Children the same color of my country's earth
With their same scars
Millions of worms
And because of that
How sad it is, the way the children live
In houses made of cardboard

How sad does the rain sound
On the roofs made of cardboard
How far away, does hope pass by
In the houses made of cardboard

Caterpillar: Japanese Movie

I am infuriated. I am disgusted. I can't sleep.

Caterpillar (Kyatapira) is a Japanese movie released in 2010 against the growing Fascism in Japan. It starts with the Sino-Japanese 1945 war scenes. A few soldiers are running after Chinese girls in a village that has been set on fire and finally get hold of them, torture them and rape them ruthlessly as they try to defend, scream and cringe. You see the satisfaction on Kurokawa, the soldier's face, as if he has had his revenge.

The next scene transports you to a house in a small village in Japan, where a family is kneeling down and horrifically looking at the return of their son, a 'war hero', Kurokawa. The soldiers who have come to drop him at this house say that he miraculously survived the war even though he has lost his limbs. Once they leave, you see the family reacting, not knowing whether to be rejoice the return of their kin or be miserable at the pound of flesh lying in front of them who can neither talk nor hear.

The wife, Shigeko breaks down, in grief, and in rage and refuses to accept him as her husband, but the whole village asks her to take care of her great husband, who has done his country proud, who is a role model for many, and is truly a 'War God'.

She finally comes to terms, obediently fulfills her duties, by cleaning him and feeding him. Even though her husband is incapacitated, he still has his insatiable sex drive and repeatedly signals her to take off her clothes and satisfy him. He does not show any remorse at his demands and expects her to give into his demands as her duty.

The character of Shigeko portrays so much strength and perseverance that you begin to wonder how can she be so patient. The film takes you back to the times before Kurokawa left for the war, when he repeatedly used to rape Shigeko and call her an 'infertile bitch' who could not give him a son. How is she able to take care of a man, her husband who used to treat her like filth and in some ways still does, by expecting her to look after him and fulfill all him whims and fancies at every beck and call. The movie shows the indomitable spirit of a woman, and the courage and patience she demonstrates towards her husband. A woman may be physically weaker but she is several times superior to the man when it comes to courage.

The movie has some very graphic scenes, where she cleans her husband's ass every day. Once she is so disgusted by the act, that she starts singing patriotic songs to pep herself up and justify her duty. The patriotic songs that she sings form the background score of the movie and in difficult times, she repeatedly sings them to motivate her.

Much to Kurokawa's repulsion, she takes him out on a cart, dressed in a uniform and his medals, for villagers to see and appreciate. In a way, it seems she is looking for praise and appreciation for herself too as the selfless wife of the War God who made his country proud. Kurokawa, however, seems to hate the pity on the faces of the villagers, and refuses to go out the next time.

Even though he has lost his limbs and been reduced to an animal, who just eats, sleeps and craves for sex, he still has his masculine pride intact. He wants to eat all the food, leaving none for Shigeko, spits on her face when she refuses to have sex and shows no signs of remorse till Shigeko strikes back. She slaps him, curses him, screams and reminds him of all the painful times he has given her. She forces herself on him chiding him and asking him, 'Who is barren now?'

Her grief reminds Kurokawa of that fateful night when he raped the innocent girl and killed her. He remembers her screams, the look in her eyes, and the pain he gave her and consequently the fire that cost him his arms and legs. He breaks out in a fit, full of remorse, and out of control, he wriggles across the floor, tries to break his head against the wall screaming in agony. Shigeko at this point, laughs and cries at his remorse, singing, 'Rumble, Tumble like a Caterpillar.'

The movie ends with the scenes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki war in 1945 when the monarch gives in to the USA and the war ends. Several Japanese soldiers who fought for their country are hanged to death as war criminals.

Caterpillar is simple, beautiful and hard-hitting. It subtly shows how fascism and war are glorified to justify the heinous crimes committed against mankind, destroying not just human lives but killing the human spirit. The film repeatedly makes you ponder how a soldier fighting in the name of his country yet raping and ruthlessly beating Chinese victims, even his wife can be portrayed as a War God. How can people bow in front of him, worship him and sing in his praise? The setting of this film might be Japanese, but the same story repeats itself everywhere. Be it war against the Naxals in India, the army in Kashmir, USA soldiers in Afghanistan or El Salvador, they are all war heros who have ruthlessly set people's homes on fire, raped women and robbed innocent children of their livelihood. Yet, we worship them as martyrs, as heroes and as Gods.