By AFRANIO CATANI*
Commentary on the film directed by Miguel Littín
1.
When Chilean Miguel Littín (1942) directed Acts of Marousia (1976), was a filmmaker in his early thirties with extensive experience as an actor, director and playwright, in addition to having produced several dramatic works for television, documentaries for the cinema and having achieved critical and public success with his first feature-length fiction film, The Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969)
At this year's Viña del Mar Film Festival, together with Valparaiso my love (Aldo Francia, 1968) and Three sad tigers (Raul Ruiz, 1968), El jackal… was hailed as the person responsible for the emergence of the New Chilean Cinema (MOUESCA, 2011, p. 206) (1). With the election of Salvador Allende to the presidency of the Republic of Chile (1970) by the political movement of Unidad Popular, Littín was appointed director of Chile Films, a position he held for almost a year, leaving it due to the serious financial and administrative problems that were affecting the government at the time.
It started in 1972, The tierra prometida, completed only in 1974 in Mexico, a country where he went into exile from 1973 onwards, where he developed most of his work as a director, almost always obtaining generous resources and support from the Mexican authorities to discuss projects and make his films. “The first of these projects came to fruition quite quickly, thanks to the support of the Banco Cinematográfico de México, to the film Acts of Marousia”, adapted from a novel, at the time still unpublished, by Patricio Manns (MOUESCA, 2011, p. 206). It is enough to watch a few minutes of the film to see that the filmmaker obtained significant material resources to film it. Having made half a dozen fiction films in exile, this is the only one in which he develops a story about his country, while his other works are based on general Latin American themes (ORELLANA RIERA, 2012, p. 17) (2).
2.
Filmed in an abandoned silver mine in the town of Santa Eulalia, in the Mexican desert of Chihuahua, Acts of Marousia recreates the atmosphere of a Chilean mining town at the beginning of the 20th century with its houses, inhabitants, tavern and union assemblies, in short, the daily life experienced by oppressed workers, subjected to almost unlimited brutality.
We are in Marusia, northern Chile, in 1907; this town only exists because of the work offered in a saltpeter mine by an English mining company, which exploits a large part of the nation's minerals. In the main square, on a dusty and windy day like any other, the workers' wives chat around the corpse of an English engineer who has been murdered. Then, the army sergeant and corporal, in charge of the bureaucratic procedures regarding the body, appear. They engage in a dialogue that can be taken as an example of the way the armed wing of the capitalist enclave in the region acts:
Sergeant: “Go ahead, corporal!”
Corporal: “We have to find a clue to the killer.”
Sergeant: “The only thing on the streets of Marousia are tracks.”
Corporal: “All killers leave clues.”
Sergeant: “Yes, but these murderers are those appointed by the administration. We shoot them and that’s it!”(3)
The general administrator, the Mister, shouts to the employees in the mining company office: “They killed the engineer, those who organized the strike”. From this, one of the suspects, Rufino, is arrested and interrogated by the soldiers in the office of Mister. who, after calling the Peruvian worker a “shitty Indian”, gives the sentence: “Shoot him!” The sergeant tries to argue: “I can’t, sir, I have to follow the law, he has to be tried first”. But Mister do not equivocate: “This animal is outside the law!”
In the following scenes, the Peruvian worker is led to a deserted place, walking quickly in front of the soldiers' horses, while his wife runs after the mounted men; he is summarily shot several times. In retaliation, the mine workers murder police officers, other executions are carried out by army forces, and a general strike is triggered in all the mining enclaves in the area.
The strikers elect a management committee, the union becomes even more active and strategies for confronting the enemy are discussed. From then on, the film spends a considerable amount of time recapping the lives of some union leaders. In particular, Gregorio (Gian Maria Volonté), evoking his relationship with Margarita (Silvia Mariscal), his partner killed by the military in a previous massacre that took place in Iquique, which is about 200 kilometers from Marusia.
Among the lines of action defined by the union leadership is the appropriation of large quantities of dynamite, used in the mines. At one point, Gregorio says that 40 kilos of dynamite and 12 men are needed to transport it, with the women, in the division of labor of resistance against the oppressor, being responsible for storing water, food and matches (“to light the dynamite”).
The critical fortune dedicated to Acts of Marousia highlights, among other dimensions of Miguel Littín's narrative, that “the story is told according to an ideological scheme then in vogue, the confrontation of the 'traditional left', supposedly reformist, with the 'revolutionary left', in favor of armed conflict” (MOUESCA, 2011, p. 206).
The soldiers present and the reinforcements that arrive are unable to control the situation, as Marousia is completely occupied by the workers who now hold the English hostage. In this conflict, the miners confront the soldiers, sometimes resorting to suicide attacks with sticks of dynamite tied to their bodies.
New military contingents are sent by train through the port of Iquique. From there, the film discusses the different forms of action at length: there are those who advocate handing over dynamite and freeing the English, as they fear being massacred. While Gregorio says that “for every strike that is won, ten are lost”, he also states: “if we do that [surrender] we will be machine-gunned immediately; it has always been like that”. Domingo Soto (Eduardo López Rojas) responds, saying: “we will not be able to organize ourselves, we lack time, and time is what we do not have”.
Gregorio argues that if workers organize themselves they will be able to spread the strike throughout northern Chile and Peru, “in an alliance of workers, soldiers, students and peasants”, spreading revolt “throughout the country”. the Pampa, contaminating the entire country”. And he concludes definitively, convincing those present at the assembly that the military “cannot bomb Maroussia. If they do, they will destroy the entire company – and the company will not allow that. We will fight”.
Unfortunately for the miners, Gregorio was wrong: Captain Troncoso was assigned to command the military detachment destined to intervene in Marousia. And in conversation with the mining company representative (Mr. O'Brian), through an interpreter, Troncoso convinced him that the best solution was to bomb Marousia, otherwise the strikers and strikes would spread like an epidemic throughout the country: “We have to attack and exterminate the problem where it appears.” After receiving Mr. O'Brian's approval, he added: “It is better to lose a section (Marousia) without losing the minerals and without threatening the other units.”
Troncoso arrives with his assistant, Officer Espinoza, hundreds of well-armed men and several cannons on a train that is forced to stop a few kilometers from Marusia because the miners' wives have laid down on the railroad tracks. Troncoso gets off the train and orders the engineer to move the train back a few meters and advance on the women. The engineer refuses to obey and is shot dead by the soldier. Espinoza informs him that there is no other engineer. Troncoso then orders everyone to abandon the train and take their weapons and equipment with them, traveling the remaining kilometers on foot. However, before leaving, he shoots all the women who were blocking the way ("Indian sons of bitches!" he shouts).
While they were still on the train, Espinoza asked what mistake Troncoso had made throughout his career, since he considered him the best officer in the Chilean army and therefore should not be in command of a military operation “here in the north”. He also added that when he, Espinoza, went on an extermination mission, he was always afraid. “Then the killing begins, everyone dies and then the bayonets are used. At first you feel a little tingle all over your body, but then the smell of blood comes and you want to kill and keep killing. It’s easy, it’s like hunting pigeons”. Troncoso did not answer. He told Espinoza to shut up only when Espinoza mentioned that all the military instructors were from other countries – and he mentioned some of the foreign surnames –, adding: “It’s like a slow and silent invasion of gringos”.
There are also some scenes that focus on the teacher at the school for the workers' children, children of various ages. She engages in dialogue with Gregorio, informing him that she witnessed the massacre of the miners in Iquique. And, when the English citizens leave Marusia, she decides to stay in the town, producing a beautiful general shot of the platform at the station – the priest leaves quickly…
When Troncoso arrived, he said he did not want any survivors and, shortly before ordering the attack, he reflected: “Artillery to slow down; rifle fire to finish off; cavalry to pursue.” He shouted to the troops: “Soldiers of the Fatherland: the enemy is ahead, and we are going to exterminate him!”, adding: “Long live Chile!”, followed by three cheers from the other soldiers.
What follows is widespread carnage, a terrible massacre: gunfire from both sides, cannons being fired by the military and destroying people and houses, bombs being thrown at the soldiers, dynamite exploding on the bodies of the miners, in suicide attacks, at the moment they realize that they will be killed by the occupying forces, etc.
When it is clear that the fight is nearing its end, Gregorio talks to Soto, making his self-criticism: “we did not know how to organize ourselves, we did not know how to seek the necessary alliances to resist, we did not know how to adequately discuss the problems to seek the necessary unity”. Gregorio orders Soto and the other two companions to separate and flee with the minutes that he had been writing over the days, since he arrived in Marousia, recording the course of events – “these papers allow us to tell the world what happened” (ORELLANA RIERA, 2012, p. 18).
All the men who were not killed in combat are captured, tortured and shot in full view of the women and children. Stubborn, angry, he roars: “The more we kill them, the more they appear.”
Gregorio is tortured physically and psychologically, while Troncoso and Espinoza ask him where the other leaders of the movement are. Then, in a corner of the main square, lying face down on the ground, Gregorio is shot under the watchful eyes of dozens of children.
In the final sequences, Soto and two companions are seen running non-stop, carrying the minutes that record the entire plot of events that culminated in the massacre in the saltpeter city of Marusia, northern Chile, on August 17, 1907. The publication of these minutes will help organized workers continue their emancipatory struggle.
In this film by Miguel Littín, his main virtues as a director can be seen, such as the characteristic setting of the town of Marousia at the beginning of the last century; the confident direction of the actors; the almost permanent climate of tension and the skillful handling of several crowd scenes. Also noteworthy are the music by Mikis Theodorakis, the songs by Ángel Parra, the good dialogues between the soldiers, Gregorio's monologues and Volonté's restrained interpretation (MOUESCA, 1988 and 2011; ORELLANA RIERA, 2012) (4). At the same time, in Acts of Marousia there is an excessive emphasis on allegorical resources, the grandiloquence of the revolutionary discourse, some rhetorical excesses and the recurrence, sometimes extreme, of scenes of violence.
Acts of Marousia, I understand, constitutes a turning point in 20th century Chilean cinema, showing that violence, shootings, intimidation and the continued use of a military machine against the working classes have always been instruments used by Latin American elites – Chilean, in this case – to perpetuate their domination.
3.
I would just like to add a little personal note: I have a special affection for Acts of Marousia, because, in the midst of the Brazilian military dictatorship, I believe it was late 1977 or early 1978, I found myself, with dozens of other people, in a commercial movie theater in São Paulo, near Avenida Paulista, late at night, watching the premiere of Miguel Littín's work – all spectators were invited. Almost half an hour after the screening began, the lights came on and we were shouted at to leave the theater. We were surrounded by police cars and agents of the federal police, who formed a sort of Polish corridor and, without physical violence (symbolic violence was enough), reiterated that we should leave quickly.
If my memory serves me right, the film was censored and banned from being shown here for a long time. I came to see the film much later, only at the end of the 1990s, in Cuba, working at Havana New Latin American Film Festival, not failing to move me and get involved with the struggle of the mining workers in town of Marousia.
*Afranio Catani He is a retired professor at the Faculty of Education at USP and is currently a senior professor at the same institution. Visiting professor at the Faculty of Education at UERJ (Duque de Caxias campus).
Originally published in Daniela Gillone (Org.). Latin American Cinema. São Paulo: Latin American Memorial Foundation, 2014, pp. 37-45.
Reference
Acts of Marousia
Mexico, 1976, 110 minutes
Direction: Miguel Littín
road map: Miguel Littín, Patricio Manns and Freddy Taverna
Photography: Jorge Sthal Junior
Assembly: Ramon Aupart and Alberto Valenzuela
Production Company: Conacine and Arturo Feliu
Cast: Gian Maria Volonté, Diana Bracho, Claudio Obregón, Eduardo López Rojas, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Salvador Sánchez, Silvia Mariscal, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Arturo Beristáin, Alejandro Parodi.
Notes
- MOUESCA, J. Littín Cucumides, Miguel. In: CASARES RODICIO, E. (Coord.). Dictionary of Iberoamerican Cinema. Spain, Portugal and America. Madrid: SAGE/Fundación Autor, vol. 5, 2011, p. 205-208.
- ORELLANA RIERA, C. Minutes of Marusia. In: CASARES RODICIO, E. (Coord.). Dictionary of Iberoamerican Cinema. Spain, Portugal and America. Madrid: SGAE/Fundación Autor, vol. 1, 2012, p. 17-18.
- All the lines spoken by the characters mentioned in this text were transcribed from the film.
MOUESCA, J. Miguel Littín: the Latin American opening. Sequence plan memory of Chile. Five years of Chilean cinema (1960-1985). Madrid-Santiago: Ed. Del Litoral, 1988, p. 89-107.
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