batzi8m1 Review of Ballad of the Little Soldier

Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)

spoiler: Interviews with pre-pubescent Contras

[10/10 · 3 November 1999]

Those who remember Sandinistas and Ollie North should see Herzog's brutal interviews with 11-13 year old indigenous Nicaraguan Contras. Watching these children squirm when asked a question that the pat phrases that had been drilled into their heads will not suffice, is poignant. There is no letup. They keep looking to their CIA trained handlers, who stand over their shoulders, when asked what that phrase means. Germans remember the Hitler Youth, and the lies they swallowed and repeated in such cute sounding slogans about whose meaning they had no clue. This movie is a tribute to all those children that, according to UNESCO, are being forced to fight wars at ever younger ages in ever larger numbers.