The Tiniest Place

The 1979-92 civil war in El Salvador has receded from media attention, but here it receives a poetic cinematic monument from filmmaker Tatiana Huezo, who focuses on the forest village of Cinquera—a town that was virtually annihilated during the conflict but has since been rebuilt, replete with memorials to vanished/murdered sons and daughters. Inhabitants talk about the village earning a reputation as a home for "subversives" (possibly due to revolutionary sermons by a local Catholic priest), which led to brutal government raids searching for the community's young people (that, of course, only pushed those same young people to take up arms as leftist guerillas). A survivor visits the damp "Devil's Cave" where he and others hid for years after Cinquera was devastated by air raids, and a witness speaks of what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder: "There's just no fixing me." Imagery of cleansing rain and livestock giving birth serve here as an obvious metaphor for renewal, although a bitter roll-call of the dead holds out the promise that there will be no forgetting, even if the guerillas' long-maintained guns are no longer in use. None of the Salvadoran Army regulars or security forces speak. An award winner on the festival circuit, this powerful documentary is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)