Days of Santiago (2004)
"Días de Santiago" (original title)

Santiago returns home from the Peruvian army ill-prepared to cope with the realities of life. Haunted by his violent military past, he is conflicted by his desire for education and his ...

Director:

Josué Méndez

Writer:

Josué Méndez

Stars:

Pietro Sibille, Milagros Vidal, Marisela Puicón

12 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pietro Sibille	...	Santiago Roman
Milagros Vidal	...	Andrea
Marisela Puicón	...	Elisa
Ricardo Mejía	...	Papa
Lili Urbina	...	Mama
Alheli Castillo	...	Mari
Ivy La Noire	...	Inés
Erick García	...	Coco
Giselle Bedón	...	Rita
Ana María Roca-Rey	...	Jimena (as Ana Maria Roca Rey)
Sandra Vergara	...	Sandra
Juan Durán	...	Loco taxi
Mario Martínez	...	Mario
Sandro Calderón	...	Sandro Castro
Igor Moreno	...	Igor Merino

Storyline

Santiago returns home from the Peruvian army ill-prepared to cope with the realities of life. Haunted by his violent military past, he is conflicted by his desire for education and his temptation to join his comrades in a decadent life of crime.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in title

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Peru

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

30 September 2004 (Peru)

Also Known As:

Days of Santiago

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chullachaki Producciones

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Peru's official submission to the 2006 Academy Awards.

User Reviews

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in Peru

Peruvian writer/director Josue Mendez has made a brave little low budget film that deals with a subject currently burgeoning our hospitals in this country as the fallout of the war on Iraq and still plagues the veterans of the Vietnam War - Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (aka Battle Rattle). This is a difficult topic to dramatize without being preachy or maudlin, but Mendez has succeeded where others have failed.

Santiago (Pietro Sibille) is a 23-year-old retired veteran who was conscripted at age 16 and trained to be a killer - assigned to fighting in the war against Ecuador, against terrorists, and against the drug mafia. He returns to his family in Lima a damaged, broken, paranoid misfit who tries to leave his military past behind but mentally returns to it as the only time he felt important. Unable to work he finally begins to drive a taxi and encounters all manner of passengers - wealthy men, girls on the party circuit, disreputable people of all types. He tries desperately to adjust to the post-military life, but find his family in shambles, a wholly dysfunctional unit to which he can no longer relate. How he finds his 'place' in this chaos is the subject of Mendez' story (Mendez has based this on a true story/stories and knows his subject well).

Pietro Sibille as Santiago delivers a credible performance, one that consistently borders on fragmentation of a mind deeply scarred by war and fighting. The remainder of the cast is fine. Mendez uses a mixture of black and white film with color segments and this is distracting to annoying: if the choices of film related consistently to a tenor in the story (which is not the case) then this technique could be considered artistic.

The manner in which the story is related is very much in keeping with the fragmented and paranoid mindset of Santiago and for this the director is to be commended for successfully achieving the next to impossible! Many strong points to a film that is flawed by technical problems. Grady Harp