Che: The Death of Utopia?

D: Fernando Birri
P: SUR Films in Coprod. with MDR, ZDF / 3SAT
1997 · L: 90 min
Documentary Film

Sales: contact SUR Films

World Premiere: International Leipzig Film Festival
"Now that he has been elevated to a myth, we should save him from the altar of demigods and give him back his original form", thus outlines Argentinian film director Fernando Birri his film.
On the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernesto "Che" Guevara one of Latin America's major film authors and directors, Fernando Birri, undertakes to track down the legendary freedom-figther.
In Birri's view the date is an appropriate occasion on the eve of the 21th century to reflect on the significance of Che as a myth and as a person. In particular, it is an opportunity for him to examine the question of where utopia can be found and what it means. This is the central theme of his film collage, his polemic film essay: "Without utopia there is no history. Otherwise it would mean that we accept an alienated, suicidal world."