339 Amin Abel Hasbun. Memoria de un crimen.

When the Lumiere brothers presented their invention in public (December 28, 1895) in Paris, the masses of spectators were amazed at the "magic" and the dreams that enveloped them from the screen. Besides being the producers of a fairground trick, entertainment for the unwary. The Lumieres were extremely efficient and skilled individuals and conceived their proposal as an avant-garde continuation of the Impressionists' work in Painting. They wanted to make everyday life visible. Thus the cinema remained an exercise in invocation of the immanent: The means of transport, the departure of the factory workers: the first steps of a baby ... the underlying theme of all the work of the Lumiere was the human being.

Eleven decades later, in the Dominican Republic, it has not yet been possible to make the cinema appropriate the theme of the Lumiere, humanity, and it is common to see films whose relationship with the interior of the human being is ... scarce; (not to mention null). We are grateful that this is not the case of the film that gives its title to this reflection. Being human is not just having desires; it is also having yearnings; it is not just fantasizing, there is room for dreams and utopias; It is not only to succeed (woe to the protagonists who survive plane crashes, bursts of submachine guns and fast and furious accidents even and when their actors do not manage to survive very similar accidents) it is also to fail in the attempt. Like the baby who cannot take his first steps without stumbling in the Lumiere short, neither does Amin's baby manage to make his father return or move his murderers with his screams in Etzel's film...

Amin Abel Hasbun is a dead man from the internal brawls of a Cold War that touched us indirectly and the team of this production would do poor service to Dominican society if, for the sake of supposed profitability, they ve refused to recreate the harsh daily life of the persecuted ... A precedent that we must not forget; because the tentacles of state violence; today asleep, are still dangerous and subtle. I would also like to point out that 339 Amín Abel is a film with many hopeful overtones; its director and screenwriter is not a cynic; it is just that the situation in which the protagonist's widow was involved was very cynical and Etzel chose (there was no alternative) to show us what that situation was like with its great bitterness and its tiny triumphs.

From United States America about 339 Amín Abel: Etzel, I thought I'd share some of the comments from criminal justice students: "The director was brave to make the movie and I commend him for all the hard work he did." "It was cool to know that the interviews were the exact same in real life and that he was able to have them in it." "I enjoyed the storyline, characters, and artistic nature of the film. Despite the movie being fictional, the actors and actresses did a good job at portraying the emotions and feelings of the real people involved." "One character I really liked was the wife. Her raw anger and sadness when being interrogated seemed to accurately portray how the real person would have felt." "I was also very impressed that we got to talk to the filmmaker in person via video chat after the movie. In all, I found this movie to give a very interesting perspective on what kind of crime can be committed in other countries and how citizens of that country respond to it as well as those who enforce the laws." I appreciate your offer for other opportunities to screen the film and to have discussion. I'll definitely let our Spanish and global justice faculty know, as they certainly address issues that the film speaks well to.

Best,

Steve

Stephen S. Owen, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Criminal Justice Radford University