Brazil has a new and unusual documentary on the civil-military dictatorship. Soldados do Araguaia (2018), directed by Belisario Franca, uncovers yet untold stories of violence from the dictatorship era, and does so from a novel perspective. This is a film not to be missed if you are in Brazil – and even if not, the method to the documentary is important to any investigation into state violence.
Belisario Franca takes a look at how the military dictatorship decimated communities in the Araguaia River Basin between 1972-1975 with the justification of fighting communist guerilla forces. And he does so through the stories of four men who served in the armed forces during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Using powerful, emotional, and in-depth interviews with the soldiers who came forward about the military’s crimes as well as footage from this area of Brazil and archived photos, the documentary reveals the immense mechanism behind dictatorial violence – from the inside.
“I’m not proud,” one of the soldiers says before launching into his story at the beginning of the film. He thought he was joining the military to defend his country, but in reality he entered into a system in which he would torture and murder fellow citizens.
The four soldiers claim to have witnessed murders beyond the 434 cases of disappeared political prisoners included in Brazil’s National Truth Commission. They recount exactly what kinds of crimes they committed and the torture they witnessed in the military outposts in Araguaia. But they also discuss the immense violence of the military training they went through, a training so intense that it amounts to torture. They explain the narrative the military gave them to justify the crimes they were to commit and they expose the order of silence they received from their superiors. And in so doing, they explain the internal mechanism of how Brazil keeps the crimes of its dictatorship quiet.
Portraying dictatorship violence from the perspective of the military is not easy to do well, but Soldados do Araguaia masters the approach. There is not a single apology to the human rights violations committed, but rather an honest coming forward about the horrors for which the military is responsible and a rigorous historical and journalistic investigation on the part of the creators of the documentary.
This film, in that regard, goes far beyond existing research on dictatorship. By delving into the soldiers’ points of view, we have access to stories of violence that have been silenced for decades – both the violence the general public suffered and the culture of violence that exists within dictatorial regimes. Ultimately, this is a compelling new perspective, one that shows how even those on the inside know how truly terrible the dictatorship was.
At the end of the documentary, the soldiers speak directly to people in Brazil who support the return of the military dictatorship. They say that things might be bad now but guarantee that the country under authoritarianism was truly atrocious. That is, it was atrocious even for them, soldiers with the power of the state behind them. It is a compelling argument for anyone who doubts the realities of the military period.
Belisario Franca is not the first researcher to document state violence from the perspective of those who were complicit. If you’re interested in other successful examples of this approach, take a look at Agência Pública’s investigation into human rights violations committed in present-day military police training in Brazil. It bears shocking similarities to the kind of training the soldiers from the documentary suffered in the 1960s and 1970s.
Looking farther afield, consider the project Breaking the Silence in which soldiers from the Israeli Defense Force publish testimonies and evidence about the human rights violations committed against Palestinians.
Do you recommend any other documentaries about the military dictatorship? How about information on violence within the military, either in Brazil or abroad? Comment below with your suggestions.