Ernesto Che Guevara (F)

Le Journal de Bolivie

Richard Dindo

Dindo’s most widely seen work is the 1994 ERNESTO CHE GUERVARA: THE BOLIVIAN DIARY. The film masterfully re-creates Che’s famous trek through the poor villages and rugged countryside of Bolivia with a small band of 50 committed soldiers — mostly Cubans and Bolivians. His goal was to "create a central nerve center in Bolivia" from which he could spark a peasant revolution. Ego and infighting prevented the Bolivian Communist Party from aligning with him, and there is no evidence that Castro offered help or even publicized his former colleague’s radical step. This sense of isolation and near-futility permeates Che’s diary of this event and thus the film, which uses large portions of this document as a voiceover.

The film retraces much of Che’s journey, the camera wandering through desolate valleys and rocky cliffs while Che’s words are read on the soundtrack. These scenes were videotaped rather than shot on film, to give the landscape an intimate intensity as the outward manifestation of his interior struggle. Che’s words are resigned but also have a poetic immediacy; in one sequence he describes one of his comrades being swept away by a river as "our baptism of death in an absurd manner on the shores of the Rio Grande." Dindo managed to locate some of the peasants Che described — still living in squalor almost three decades after his death, and reprises Che’s deathbed promise to create a better life for them. Dindo’s use of primary sources and his re-creation of Che’s journey seduces the viewer into the story without resorting to sentimentality or sensationalism.

Richard Dindo

Born in 1944 in Zurich. Lives and works in Zurich and Paris.

2010 GAUGUIN A TAHITI ET AUX MARQUISES
2009 THE MARSDREAMERS
2007 LA MATERNITE DES HUG
2005 WER WAR KAFKA?
2004 TROIS JEUNES FEMMES (ENTRE LA VIE ET LA MORT)
2003 ARAGON: LE ROMAN DE MATISSE
2003 NI OLVIDO NI PERDON
2002 LA MALADIE DE LA MEMOIRE
2002 VERHÖR UND TOD IN WINTERTHUR
1999 GENET A CHATILA
1998 HUG - L'HOPITAL CANTONAL UNIVERSITAIRE DE GENEVE
1997 GRÜNINGERS FALL
1996 UNE SAISON AU PARADIS
1994 ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA - LE JOURNAL DE BOLIVIE
1992 CHARLOTTE, VIE OU THEATRE?
1991 ARTHUR RIMBAUD, UNE BIOGRAPHIE
1987 DANI, MICHI, RENATO & MAX
1986 EL SUIZO- UN AMOURE EN ESPAGNE
1983 MAX HAUFLER, "DER STUMME"
1981 MAX FRISCH, JOURNAL I-III
1978 HANS STAUB - FOTOREPORTER
1978 CLEMENT MOREAU, DER GEBRAUCHSGRAFIKER
1977 DIE ERSCHIESSUNGS DES LANDESVERRÄTERS ERNST S.
1974 SCHWEIZER IM SPANISCHEN BÜRGERKRIEG
1972 NAIVE MALER IN DER OSTSCHWEIZ
1972 DER DIALOG
1970 DIE WIEDERHOLUNG

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Ernesto Che Guevara (F)