Pontecorvo: Quemada (1969) - KarazwLaimoon

Title: Queimada (Burn)
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo (Italy)
Date: 1969
Language: English with French Subtitles
Duration: 112 minutes

Date: Thursday 31 October 2013

Time: 6 pm
Location: Mouawad Museum (Beirut, Lebanon)

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Synopsis: (From Wikipedia)
Sir William Walker (Marlon Brando), is an agent provocateur sent to the island of Queimada, a fictional Portuguese colony in the Lesser Antilles island group in the Caribbean. The film was originally set on a Spanish island called Quemada, meaning "burnt", but it was changed to Portuguese after the Spanish government found it insulting; however, the language spoken in the film remained Spanish.[1] Walker is sent to organize an uprising of black slaves to overthrow the Portuguese regime because Great Britain wants to get economic control of the island, as it is an important sugar cane producer.
The plan is to replace the Portuguese administration by a formally sovereign state controlled by white latifundists friendly to Great Britain. To realize this project, William Walker persuades the black slaves to fight for their liberation from slavery.
José Dolores (Evaristo Márquez) becomes the leader of the rebellion, while white political leaders assassinate the governor and establish a provisional government. After the overthrow of the Portuguese regime, British interests establish a corrupt puppet government, while Dolores is marginalized. Though slavery had formally ended and the former slaves in theory had rights, a legal and property system was established that forced them to continue to work in the sugar cane plantations in even worse conditions than before.
William Walker leaves the island after the revolution. He comes back to Queimada 10 years later, this time to destroy the black political movement he had helped create. José Dolores has taken Walker's ideas to heart and is now leading a rebel army against the British puppet regime in Queimada. Walker is now working for the Royal Sugar Company, which organizes its own army and manipulates Queimada politics directly, including ordering the execution of one of its puppet presidents. After this, British troops land on the island, contributing artillery and crack infantry for fighting the rebels. Their main strategy is setting fire to the forests and sugar-cane fields to draw out the rebels—a strategy that achieves its goal but also destroys the reason for Britain's interest in the island.
Eventually, the rebel army is defeated and Jose Dolores is captured. Dolores is offered his freedom in return for renouncing the rebellion. However, Dolores turns down this offer and is hanged, willingly sacrificing himself. The movie ends when Walker is killed by a man in the street, seemingly as revenge for Dolores's death.