Innocent Voices

There are movies that one wants to see, and there are movies one should see. Innocent Voices is the latter. The story of a young boy in El Salvador during the long fight between the government and the guerrillas. The film demonstrates the probably all too common juxtaposition of childhood playfulness and fun and the complete loss of innocence of children in a war. Both the government soldiers and guerrillas were recruiting child soldiers and for the central character, 12 year old Chava, loss of innocence culminated with the decision about whether to shoot his neighborhood friend. It baffles me how children survive in these situations, and even more, how adults can continue to perpetrate the atrocities of war. A particularly chilling scene of the execution of "guerrilla children" shows how completely inhuman we can be. I wanted one of the children to stand up and face his captor. To humanize this violence and change the course of war with a gaze into the face of a child. I wanted a happy ending.
4-stars