Guapo'y

(Guapo'y)
Sofia Paoli Thorne | Documentary

2022 | 70 minutes | Paraguay, Argentina, Qatar

Celsa recalls Paraguay’s Stroessner dictatorship, her torture, her husband’s death. Remains are found under Stroessner's home: will she find closure?

Synopsis

Alfredo Stroessner was the longest ruling dictator on the South American continent, controlling Paraguay with an iron fist from 1954 to 1989. Opponents were imprisoned, tortured, and killed.

In Guapo’y, Celsa, now 70, looks back on that horrific period. Forty-five years ago, pregnant with her son, she was imprisoned and tortured. Later she learned that her husband had also been tortured and then murdered. After eight years, she was reunited with her mother, who herself had been imprisoned, and the two women talk about the traumatic past. The beauty of nature, which provides the herbs she carefully gathers, contrasts starkly with the horrific memories.

The past seeps into the present when what may be the remains of Celsa’s husband are found beneath a house that once belonged to Stroessner. Frighteningly, the current president, Mario Abdo Benítez, grandson of Stroessner’s personal secretary, openly praises the politics of the former dictator.

Reviews

"These vivid stories are heartbreaking, yet Thorne also juxtaposes them with the calm rhythm of Celsa’s daily life, where she carefully tends to her plants and gathers ingredients for herbal cures. Against all odds, the healing has begun." - Phuong Le, The Guardian

"Through Celsa's story [Sofía Paoli Thorne] shows us how the past can profoundly influence our lives, and how healing and justice go hand in hand." - Emiliano Basile, Escribiendo Cine

"Guapo’y is an important audiovisual testimony of resilience that originated from a very hard moment in the conflictive history of South America." - Gianmarco Farfán, Cineencuentro

“The product of nine years of visits and conversations about children, grandchildren, and plants, the documentary portrays fragments of Ramírez's life and his memories of the Emboscada prison.” – EFE

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Keywords
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Clips
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Festivals

IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam - Luminous-Special Mention Best First Feature; Málaga Film Festival - Silver Biznaga Award for Best Director; True/False Film Festival; Uruguay International Film Festival - Human Rights Selection-Best Film, Audience Award ; Festival de Biárritz Amérique Latine

DIRECTOR: Sofia Paoli Thorne

NATIONALITY: Paraguay, Argentina, Qatar

YEAR: 2022

GENRE: Documentary

LANGUAGE: Spanish; Guarani; Indigenous languages; Other languages

COLOR / B&W: Color

GRADE LEVEL: High School, College, Adult

SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE

AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE

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