Sunday, November 23-----Making its international premiere at IDFA this weekend is the Peruvian documentary Lucanamarca. The film tells the intriguing and disturbing story of the 1983 massacre of 69 residents of the remote village of Lucanamarca, who 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. Human remains from mass graves were exhumed and transported to Lima for investigation and identification. At a trial of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzmán, survivors of the massacre tell their stories. The film charts the rise of Shining Path, their communist ideology, and their promises to fight poverty and provide work for everyone, and how it all went wrong.

The film explores the deep emotional wounds caused on that black day back in 1983 and reveals that due to negligence and government indifference, they are far from healed. The world needs to learn more about this little known human tragedy. Producer Sandra Yepez is in Amsterdam to generate interest in the film and the untold story.

For more information on the film, contact:

Sandra Yepez

Producer, TV Cultura

Lima, Peru

email: sandra.yepez.g@gmail.com

Sandy Mandelberger, IDFA Dailies Editor