June 26: “The hands of Che Guevara”

Dutch Film of the month of June “The hands of Che Guevara”

13.30 & 16.00, free admission

A documentary film by Peter de Kock
Year : 2006
Original title : De Handen van Che Guevara
Language spoken : Spanish
Subtitled : English

The hands of Che Guevara (Las manos de Che Guevara) is the documentary directing debut of Dutch film maker Peter de Kock. The documentary is an expedition in
search of the hands of Latin-American guerilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara, which were chopped off his body shortly after his execution in 1967.

“The truth lies hidden within the various interpretations from which it is built". (A quotation credited to Che Guevara). In 1997 Che Guevara’s body was found burried under a landing strip in Bolivia. With this discovery it seems that the last mystery about his life and death was solved, untill it became clear that the hands were missing. After being separated from the body, Che Guevara’s hands were put into a jar filled with formaldehyde, before they completely went missing. Further on the
hands were then smuggled, concealed, exhumed en stolen again before they started on their clandestine journey around the world.

De Kock found al the persons involved, managed to get them in front of the camera and was able to move them to talk. Thives, smugglers and government leaders told stories about their roles in this bizzare history. Each of them has an emotional and dramatic testimony, but slowly the question arises on which of the tales is the true one. This tense documentary hereby explores the border between history and mythology.

Date: 26 June 2010
Location

Erasmus Huis