- A group of veterans "guerrilla and soldiers" faces hatred from the past and a prevailing grief when they return, 25 years later, to the neighborhoods of San Salvador where they fought the final battle of the Salvadoran Civil War.
- The Battle of the Volcano is a documentary mosaic of oral and visual memories about the major battle of the Salvadoran Civil War. The characters are veterans from the Guerrilla and Army and civilians that survived that battle in the city during November 1989. It is story based in memory exercises when our characters returned to the places where they fought or suffered the conflict 25 years ago. These visits documented the memories of the survivors as well as their feelings and reflections about the war, the pain, and the wounds they have until this day.
The documentary shows a total of 18 persons; each of them tell a small part of their experience during the battle with one common characteristic: they are anonymous combatants and civilians and their statements portray the horror and destruction of the first line of fire during the battle. They are all survivors.
The documentary has included two elements: a journey with the characters through the neighborhoods and journalistic footage that present first-hand knowledge of how they lived during the combats and establish a dialog with the oral testimonies between the past and present of the Salvadoran society.
As a conclusion, the staging script is developed through a narrative structure subject to the emotional creation of the characters.
The first section of the film presents the characters and their personalities through stories that include military actions during the battle, most of them have a carefree mood with ironies. The second section gradually presents biographies that show the real face of the war: pain, tragedy and traumas. The third section contains scenes in which several characters from opposing sides are gathered together for the first time in their lives to talk about the battle (military operation). They express the last feelings of the film: regret, forgiveness and reconciliation.
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Top Gap
By what name was La batalla del volcán (2018) officially released in Canada in English?
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