The film opened at a café in the colonial town of Suchitoto, El Salvador. In 2019 it traveled to the United States, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia, and its lead actor was named Best Actor.
The Diamond Film Awards named Oscar Suncín Best Actor in January 2019. That year festivals in Providence, Valencia and Apulia each took the film as an official selection.
November 10–17, 2018
Suchitoto, El Salvador
The film opened during the fifth Festival Internacional de Cine Suchitoto. Gaceta Suchitoto announced the world premiere for November 10 and 11, and the festival poster promised a showing every afternoon at two o’clock through November 17. Producer Lawrence Justin Mills and members of the cast were there for the opening weekend.
February 23, 2019
San Salvador, El Salvador
The film played the auditorium of the MUNA, El Salvador’s national anthropology museum, on a Saturday at 6 p.m. Tickets were three dollars, and two for students with an ID.
March 22, 2019
Washington, D.C.
The showcase programmed the Salvadoran entry for a Friday evening, at 6:30 p.m., at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
April 13, 2019
Terlizzi, Italy
The festival announced its official selection on April 13 and named Baltazar López’s film among the features.
May 9, 2019
Valencia, Spain
An official selection of the festival’s 2019 edition. The poster announces the screening for noon on May 9, and the film’s own announcement gave the venue as the Meliá Valencia hotel.
September 14, 2019
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The embassies of seventeen Latin American countries, with Argentina’s national film institute, programmed a free cycle of films from across the region. El Salvador’s entry screened on a Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
Program of the cycle (PDF) (in Spanish)Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (in Spanish)
September 20–28, 2019
Providence, Rhode Island
The festival’s 27th edition chose the film as an official selection. Its letter to Justin Mills and Baltazar López said the festival had received “more than 2,000 entries” that year. The film was well received there.
Selection letterFestival posterCounterPunch
September 21, 2019
Whanganui, New Zealand
The festival, run by the Latin American and Spanish embassies in New Zealand and Australia, showed the film at the Davis Theatre on a Saturday at 5 p.m.
October 4–10, 2019
Oaxaca, Mexico
The film went to Oaxaca FilmFest, which ran from October 4 to 10.
October 2019
Melbourne, Australia
The festival ran at the University of Melbourne from October 17 to 27. The Consul of El Salvador, Ernesto Antonio Dueñas, attended the screening of the Salvadoran film and spoke afterward.
University of MelbourneFestival lineup
October 23, 2019
Palmerston North, New Zealand
The New Zealand festival reached the Palmerston North City Library on a Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. The library’s program lists the film with English subtitles.
October 29, 2019
Launceston, Tasmania
The fifteenth edition of the festival in Australia listed the film for a Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. during its Launceston season, held at the Australian Maritime College.
November 22, 2019
Sydney, Australia
The same festival brought the film to the Instituto Cervantes at 6:40 p.m., in Spanish with English subtitles.
After the premiere
Comalapa, El Salvador
The filmmakers took the film to El Salvador’s national police academy, whose director, Jaime E. Martínez Ventura, had provided locations for the shoot. The academy was created under the 1992 peace accords to train a civilian police in place of the forces the accords abolished, among them the National Police that had held Carlos Mauricio. Director Baltazar López led the discussion afterward. Officers who watched it said they found it hard to see themselves in the policemen on screen. The police went on to use the film in their human rights curriculum.
Photograph from the screeningCounterPunch
