Lucanamarca

On 3 April 1983, 69 residents of the remote village of Lucanamarca, Peru were brutally murdered by members of the Maoist guerrilla movement known as Shining Path. Among the victims were numerous women and children. The bloodbath was an act of retaliation for the murder of one of the movement's leaders and the first in a series of murders and flagrant human rights violations in Peru. Almost 20 years later, the government appointed a commission for truth and reconciliation that went to Lucanamarca to study the case. In Lucanamarca, remains are exhumed and transported to Lima for investigation and identification, and later returned to the village's new cemetery. Back in the capital, Abimael Guzmán, the founder of Shining Path, is on trial. In this film, survivors tell their stories, starting with the rise of Shining Path, their Communist ideology, and their promises to fight poverty and provide work for everyone. A few villagers travel to Lima to testify before the court there, and from their testimonies, it becomes clear that the deep emotional wounds caused on that black day back in 1983 are far from healed.