Carla's Song (1996) was directed by Ken Loach. The time is Glasgow, 1987. Robert Carlyle portrays George Lennox, a decent enough guy who drives a bus. He meets and falls in love with Carla (Oyanka Cabezas), a beautiful young woman eking out an existence as a street busker.
George (and we) learn quickly that Carla has had horrible experiences because of the Contra war in her native Nicaragua. Hoping to help Carla find the answers to vital questions, George brings her back to Nicaragua to find her former lover, who was wounded and captured, and who may be dead.
This is the first movie I've ever seen that depicts the Contra war for exactly what it was--a U.S.-driven attempt to crush the Nicaraguan revolution. It wasn't subtle at the time, and it isn't subtle in the film. The CIA and the White House considered Nicaragua "The threat of a good example," and they used force to re-establish U.S. dominance.
I was in Nicaragua--although not in the war zone--in January, 1988, just months after the events in the film were taking place. Loach got it right--the enthusiasm of the people, their hopes for a better future, and their attempts to survive continual attacks from the U.S.-trained and U.S.-supplied Contras.
The drama of Carla's life--past, present, and (we assume) future--is the link that holds the film together. Nicaragua was--and is--filled with women like Carla. There are ten thousand movies that someone could make to tell their stories. Ken Loach has made this film about Carla, and he has done a service to all Nicaraguans and to us.
Notes: We saw the film on DVD. It would work better on a large screen, but I don't know if it is ever shown at festivals or even at Nicaraguan solidarity events.
The Glasgow dialect is almost incomprehensible to our ears in this movie. It was much easier to understand the Nicaraguan Spanish!
Personal note: one of my friends, Anita Setright, plays the part of a member of the U.S. solidarity organization Witness for Peace. Anita is a U.S. citizen who drove an ambulance in the war zone during the Contra war. She never knew whether the road in front of the vehicle contained a land mine. She is one of the bravest people I know.
George (and we) learn quickly that Carla has had horrible experiences because of the Contra war in her native Nicaragua. Hoping to help Carla find the answers to vital questions, George brings her back to Nicaragua to find her former lover, who was wounded and captured, and who may be dead.
This is the first movie I've ever seen that depicts the Contra war for exactly what it was--a U.S.-driven attempt to crush the Nicaraguan revolution. It wasn't subtle at the time, and it isn't subtle in the film. The CIA and the White House considered Nicaragua "The threat of a good example," and they used force to re-establish U.S. dominance.
I was in Nicaragua--although not in the war zone--in January, 1988, just months after the events in the film were taking place. Loach got it right--the enthusiasm of the people, their hopes for a better future, and their attempts to survive continual attacks from the U.S.-trained and U.S.-supplied Contras.
The drama of Carla's life--past, present, and (we assume) future--is the link that holds the film together. Nicaragua was--and is--filled with women like Carla. There are ten thousand movies that someone could make to tell their stories. Ken Loach has made this film about Carla, and he has done a service to all Nicaraguans and to us.
Notes: We saw the film on DVD. It would work better on a large screen, but I don't know if it is ever shown at festivals or even at Nicaraguan solidarity events.
The Glasgow dialect is almost incomprehensible to our ears in this movie. It was much easier to understand the Nicaraguan Spanish!
Personal note: one of my friends, Anita Setright, plays the part of a member of the U.S. solidarity organization Witness for Peace. Anita is a U.S. citizen who drove an ambulance in the war zone during the Contra war. She never knew whether the road in front of the vehicle contained a land mine. She is one of the bravest people I know.