Imanol Uribe has arrived this Monday at Málaga to present his latest film, ‘They arrived at night’with a script based on the true story of the only witness to the crime of the Jesuits in El Salvadorin which the priest and liberation theologian, Ignacio Ellacuría, was assassinated.
“I think this film has, at least, the function of bringing to the present what happened and remembering it”, said the Basque director at a press conference in Malaga, where the film is competing in the Official Section of the 25th edition of the Malaga Film Festival.
the filmmaker appeared together with Juana Acostawho gives life to Lucía, the cleaner of the university where the priests lived and were murdered, and only witness to the crime; Carmelo Gómez, as Father Tojeira, on his “timely” return to the cinema, as the Leonese has hastened to specify, and Ben Temple, who plays Father Tipton, a mediator when Lucía’s family was having a worse time.
“At this time when the truth is so dissociated and everything is ‘fakes’ and you don’t know what to defend, the example of this humble woman, who risked her life -literally-, to defend the truth, even without understanding why I couldn’t count it -Uribe explained-, It seems to me the best common thread to recount the massacre of the Jesuits who defended Liberation Theologywhom I greatly admired.
Uribe, born in El Salvador and educated with the Jesuits, had yet to tell this story that occurred in 1989an event that has remained fresh in his memory.
With a script by Daniel Cebrián, also present in Malaga together with the producers Gerardo Herrero (Tornasol) and María Luisa Gutiérrez (Bowfinger), ‘They arrived at night’ has become unexpectedly topical due to the fact that, 32 years later, the case of The massacre has been reopened after the annulment last year of the process against the intellectual authors of the murder.
The trial, held at the National Court of Spain a couple of weeks ago, concluded with one of the soldiers involved, Inocencio Montano, sentenced to 133 years and 4 months in prison for that murder on the night of November 15-16, 1989.
“The news caught us with the film shot and ending. At least 130 years have passed for this one, but most of the culprits were immediately amnestied and practically all of them are on the loose,” lamented the director, although he celebrates that the case has been reopened in El Salvador and there is an arrest warrant against President Cristiani “so that he appears in court, because he wanted to slip away”.
“Something is moving there, and if the film can contribute something, fantastic”he summed up, with a smile on his face.
The impossibility of filming in El Salvador made the production move to Cali, hometown of Juana Acosta, who for her part spent months preparing the role of Lucía with Lucía herself, at her home in California – she does not say the specific place out of fear, explains the Colombian actress, even though more than 30 years have passed since the terrifying experience.
Lucía and her family were deceived by the intelligence services of the United States, who detained and tortured them so that they would back down from the version that the perpetrators of the massacre of the Jesuits had been soldiers.
That’s where the name of the film comes from, from the premonition of Ellacuría (Karra Elejalde) himself who, at one point in the film, comments to his companions “If they kill me during the day they’ll know it was the guerrilla, but if they come at night It will be the military.”
Carmelo Gómez plays Father Tojeria, one of the survivors of the massacre“not as a character, but as someone who is most similar to the person”, explained Gómez, who claims to have been moved by the time he lived with the Jesuits to prepare the film because of “how they face the commitment to life, and to death “.
“They arrived at night”, explains Gómez, “it is a tragedy, with all its ingredients, told through a fascinating gaze, which is that of Juana (Lucía)”.
Gerardo Herrero thanked the collaboration of the Jesuits, who provided “a lot of information” and Lucía’s magnificent contact.
For his part, Gutiérrez has abounded that “this film had to be told; unfortunately, it is very current, and hopefully it will serve to stir consciences and that justice be done for what happened.”
“I think that just because justice is done for that family that has had to flee their country from the horror of a war like we are now seeing so many families in Ukraine, just for them, to honor them, this film should be seen”, Acosta concluded.
After this presentation, the film will arrive this Friday in Spanish theaters.