film

State of Fear

User Rating	1 2 3 4 5
Producer(s)	Paco de Onis
Director(s)	Pamela Yates
Release Date	2005
Runtime	94 min
Format(s)	video, DVD
Language(s)	English
Youth Media	no

Film Description

In State of Fear the spectacular beauty of Peru is juxtaposed with the disturbing revelations of that nation’s Truth Commission detailing a 20-year reign of terror. It began in 1980 with the violent Maoist guerrilla cult, Shining Path, whose bloody doings were met with equal violence from Peru’s democratically elected government. Once the terrorists were subdued, fear of their return was used as an excuse by President Alberto Fujimori to institutionalize absolute power and propagate corruption. The film, however, transcends its immediate subject to become a cautionary tale of our current global war on terror. The Commission found that Fujimori’s response increased the nation’s crisis by exacerbating the cycle of violence, and that terrorism is best fought with more democracy, not less.