Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984)

Ballad of the Little Soldier (German: Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten) is a 1984 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog about children soldiers in Nicaragua. The film focuses on a group of Miskito Indians who used children soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.

Herzog made and co-directed the film at the request of his friend Denis Reichle, who himself served as a child-soldier in the Volkssturm at age fourteen in the aftermath of World War II. The film is often cited as Herzog's most explicitly political, though Herzog denies that he had any specific statement on the politics of the Sandinistas. Herzog has said that the film is about child soldiers, and could have been made in any of several countries where child soldiers exist.

Synopsis

En 1979, le Front Sandiniste de Libération Nationale renverse le gouvernement de Somoza. Le parti lance une importante réforme agraire et soutient une politique d’expropriation des grands propriétaires terriens. En 1984, le FSNL remporte les élections nationales, mais le président Reagan ne reconnaît pas ce gouvernement. Les contras - des guérilleros anti-sandinistes - reçoivent alors un soutien militaire des Etats-Unis et c’est dans leurs camps d’entraînement qu’Herzog vient filmer la façon dont des enfants sont transformés en soldats.

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