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  • Spain Apaga y vámonos
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Spain, 2005, 87 min

Directed by:

Manel Mayol

Screenplay:

Manel Mayol

Cinematography:

Sergio Armstrong
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Plots(1)

On the banks of Chile’s longest river lie the ancestral lands of the Mapuche-Pehuenche, an Indian tribe that has always successfully fought against invasion, first by the Incas and then by the Spanish conquerors. That is until 1997 when the Spanish hydro-electrical company, Endesa, started to build the world’s third largest dam on their territories. Once again the Indigenos tried to resist the takeover of their land and native activists voiced their opposition appealing to the Indigenous Act for protection, but for the first time in their history, they were powerless. Driven by financial gain, the Chilean government colluded with Endesa and its scheme. Indigenous leaders were systematically prosecuted as terrorists simply for resisting the destruction of their lands. Finally, Endesa won and the First Nation tribe lost its home. While the Endesa leaders keep a stubborn silence, which results in almost absurdly comic sequences, Apaga y vámonos gives the victims of a merciless and criminal profit-centred system a voice worth hearing. Endesa has since been condemned by the UN for human rights violations including the attempted genocide of the Mapuche-Pehuenche during the construction of the dam. (DOK.fest München)

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