Reliving El Salvador's Civil War

The civil war in El Salvador is the subject of a new film. "Innocent Voices" views the conflict in the 1980s through the eyes of an 11 year old boy. The script was co written by a man who had that perspective. He lived through the events dramatized on the screen. Iris Mann reports. It changed the fact that we could play, you know, after sundown outside. And it changed the fact that we had to do our homework alhambra style necklace copy laying down on the floor on our tummies because there was shooting going on on top of us, but we still had to do homework. And we had to eat, so we ate on the floor.

And the games that we invented, it was more than just to play; it was actually to survive. Like, for your innocence to stay intact, you made up games, so you can make everything outside disappear. For example, what you see in the movie where we're under the bed and, you know, the little boy starts painting his face and making like clown I used to build, like, a little tent out of a blanket and chairs, and inside of there we used to form a circus.

MANN: And hanging over the head of every young boy was the threat of conscription. The Salvadoran army came looking for them as soon as they turned 12.

(Soundbite of "Innocent Voices"; whistle)

MANN: In one van cleef and arpels imitation clover necklace scene, government soldiers march into a school yard, and the names of those marked for military service are read aloud.

(Soundbite of "Innocent Voices")

Unidentified Man 1: Pablo Argetus(ph).

Unidentified Man 1: Manuel Agella(ph).

Unidentified Man 1: Antonio Gutierrez(ph).

MANN: Later in the civil war, the guerillas also conscripted children.

"Innocent Voices" was co produced by Lawrence Bender, who's produced movies for Quentin Tarantino and Gus Van Sant. He says he wanted to do this movie because it's not just about the past.

Mr. LAWRENCE BENDER (Co producer, "Innocent Eyes"): They recruited 12 year olds in this war in El Salvador, and they have young kids that age in Colombia, in Africa, all over the world, all different ages. I mean, you know, sometimes they specially made special guns for them to carry them because the guns are too big for them. I mean, it's terrible. You know, here's the thing, is you can agree or disagree on any particular war. You know, you can be a dove; you can be a hawk; you can be a liberal; you can be a conservative. But I think we all, at least in this country, can agree that no matter what your stance on the war is that children should not be part of it. His first draft was about the band that popularized a protest song outlawed by the Salvadoran government.

(Soundbite of "Casas de Carton")

Unidentified Man 2: (Singing in Spanish)

MANN: The process of reworking the screenplay was a painful one, says director Luis Mandoki, who's made a number of Hollywood films.

Mr. LUIS MANDOKI (Director, "Innocent Eyes"): And we started a big argument. I ended up grabbing a chair, lashing it against the wall and leaving the room. And I said, Keep your script if you don't want to go there.'

And when I came back half an hour later, he was sobbing. I came, I sat down, I said, So what's happening?' And he said, You always take me to these places,' and he said, I just remembered that there was we faced the final confrontation with soldiers. I was caught amidst this battle, and a guerrilla guy got shot, and I took hold of his M 16 and I pointed it at another soldier. I almost shot him.' And he started crying even more. And I said, Well, you didn't shoot him.' And he said, Yeah, and I feel really guilty because I almost killed another human being. I almost killed another boy.' And I said, OK. He says he described those memories to the child actors, but director Luis Mandoki says it was surprisingly hard to get them to convey the same fear Torres experienced.

Mr. MANDOKI: I was forced to play sound effects of bullets so that they could react to them. And in the beginning, they did, but then they got used to them. So then I started using I told my assistant director, Just get the M 16s going outside and van cleef imitation butterfly necklace have some bombs exploding.' He said, We're wasting money. It's special effects.' I said, I don't care. We have to get this right.' And they started reacting to it, but they were never really scared because they knew that it was a movie.

MANN: But during the filming of a particularly grim sequence, one of the boys suddenly burst into tears, and Mandoki asked him if he knew why they were shooting such a scene.

Mr. MANDOKI: And one of the other kids said, Yeah, because it's in the script.' And I said, Well, yeah, that's one of the reasons. But your other reason is so that this doesn't happen to other kids ever again.' And when I said that, the little kid who was sobbing looked up at me and something changed in his eyes and he started calming down. And we didn't say one more word, and he just said, I think I'm ready.'

MANN: Mandoki screened the finished film in El Salvador last December. The government denies any involvement in conscripting children and many of the atrocities depicted in the film. Some adults walked out of the screening, but Mandoki says others were grateful.

Ms. MANDOKI: A woman there said to me, I thank you so much for this film because we have these memories, but we are told every day that it didn't happen. And so we started going crazy.

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