It’s time to take a serious and studied look into the life and times of renowned Marxist revolutionary leader ‘Che’ Guevara this Sunday. Suchitra Film Society, in association with Kelo Rasika, at 11 am, as part of its view and debate programme, is screening the acclaimed The Motorcycle Diaries by celebrated Brazlian director Walter Salles and written by award-winning Puerto Rican playwright Jose Rivera.
Full of high drama and comedy, the 2004 biographical film, presents the story of a remarkable road journey on motorcycle across South America by the 23-year-old medical student Ernesto Fuser Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado before they take their final exams.
Besides brimming with fights, parties and real serious drinking binges, the film sketches vividly Guevara’s idealism and solidarity with the oppressed, and depicts the gradual development of his political outlook, but his revolutionary exploits are not mentioned except in a caption at the end.
Having been in the bustling urban world of Buenos Aires for most of their lives, the journey — across Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Venezuela — begins like two frat boys, scalawags obsessed with women and fun, which as they travel, sees them confronted by capitalism’s lingering injustices — abusive poverty, broken families, and unchecked prejudice. The humor and youthful passion of the two jolly youth is slowly stripped away to be replaced by questioning earnestness to understand the larger world and their place in it.
Based on the books Diarios de motocicleta by Guevara, the film shows how a continent-covering bike ride shaped and formed Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, the young man who would eventually become Che Guevara, the famous Cuban revolutionary and iconic hero of rebellion. Though a typical coming-of-age film where two guys take a road trip and learn some deep lesson about life, the film provides a good look into the formative years of revolutionary icon Guevara, and is indeed a must-see movie to see and savour and understand the Che persona.
Screening at Suchitra, Banashankari II Stage. For details call: 26711785.
