The Civilizers – Germans in Guatemala (1998)
Synopsis
For more than a century, Guatemala has been home to a small yet highly influential German community. Its prosperity began with the coffee boom and has continued, almost uninterrupted, to the present day. Convinced of belonging to a superior culture, its members sought to impose their model of civilization on Guatemala. Elder coffee barons present faded photographs, and through their stories, the history of colonization unfolds. But the film shifts its gaze toward the other, toward the Indigenous people who labor on the plantations. The film portrays several generations of families and, without commentary, presents twentieth-century attitudes that time has relativized but not changed. A journey through questions of power, identity, and civilization. Based on years of extensive research, it offers a new analysis of colonialism and its destructive consequences in Guatemala and Latin America.
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Director: Uli Stelzner
Top Cast
- Julio Achilá as Self
- Esteban Caal as Self
- Felipe Caal as Self
- Comunidades de Población en Resistencia (CPR) as Selves
- Vicente Cruz as Self
- Julio Delgado as Self
- Jacobo Santiago Contreras as Self
- Familia Droege as Selves
- Mathilde Dieseldorff-Quirin as Self
- Fritz García-Gallon as Self
Soundtrack
Original Music Composer(s): N/A
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