Fireflies at El Mozote is inspired by true events, chronicling the lives of those affected by the massacre of the village of El Mozote, Morazán Province, El Salvador, which is generally considered to be the worst atrocity perpetrated by government forces on civilians in modern Latin American history.

El Salvador is in the middle of a war, where a corrupt government is using an army of troops trained and armed via US-supplied aid against its own civilians. Under the leadership of Colonel Reynaldo Montenegro (Yancey Arias), the soldiers are conducting a Scorched Earth Campaign, wiping out entire villages, shooting the men and raping the women, before killing and burning the children as well. Trying to get the word out about these atrocities is a guerilla army of a couple dozen armed rebels and their pirate radio network Radio Venceremos. They are trying to warn these villages before the attacks and encourage civilians to flee to refugee camps in Honduras, but it’s not easy to keep ahead of this killing army. Leading the rebels is Aurielo (Juan Pablo Shuk) and his ex Alma (Paz Vega), who also have seen much loss in their lives.

Montenegro’s latest and most brutal attack is on the village of El Mozote, where a young boy named José (Mateo Honles) is seemingly the only survivor out of the hundreds who lived there. Alma takes him in and makes him a part of the guerilla group. She wants to protect the boy from violence and death, and gets upset when one of the other soldiers starts seeing feelings of revenge in the boy. In order to get the word out on what’s really happening and prevent government propaganda from prevailing, Aurielo invites New York Times reporter Randall Walker (Jeff Fahey) and his photographer Sarah (Mena Suvari) to document the atrocities committed by these government soldiers. However, the site of the massacre is in an area that Montenegro has under heavy surveillance and protection. The reporters want this lone 10-year-old survivor to be the center of their story, but the trauma has caused him to lose his ability to speak.

Meanwhile, Montenegro and his men will stop at nothing to prevent the rebels from getting their word out, and actively search for them so they can destroy their radio transmitter and permanently silence Radio Venceremos.

Fireflies at El Mozote has some brutal and emotional moments, but it felt like the meat of the story and connection to these characters was missing. As the film opens, we follow this guerilla group as they investigate another site where a family was killed and their bodies were left to mummify in the sun. We aren’t told where we are, what year it is, or given any info on the political landscape. Much of this seems to be assumed, as though the viewer is already familiar with the events portrayed in the movie. Next we see the atrocity at El Mozote play out, with the villagers being massacred, and leaving José distraught and alone. The rest of the film becomes this cat and mouse game between Montenegro and his troops and this guerilla army as firefights regularly break out between the two sides. This builds to a showdown, and final scene that’s supposed to be this emotional link the title of the film, but ends up feeling more like an unearned attempt at manufactured emotion.

While I think the filmmakers have done a good job of recreating the era, and making the actual massacre quite brutal and emotional, the battle sequences feel quite repetitive, and it is often difficult to keep track of the characters. Every synopsis for the film and even the cover art focuses on this boy and his seeking revenge, but that seems like such a small part of the movie and not really the focus of the actual film. Some of the more interesting aspects of this story seem to just be mentioned in scrolling text either at the start or at the end of the movie.

I thought the main cast was good with what they were given, but I don’t think we really ever get to fully know or understand these characters. As people get killed off we hear their name, but that’s about it. We can’t really feel that emotional about the loss like the other characters do if we never connected with the character. Jeff Fahey and Mena Suvari are in the film for maybe 5 minutes—it feels like they are just there to get some recognizable names for international viewers/financing, but don’t really help move along the plot or add anything new to the story that we hadn’t already seen up to that point. They give us a couple minutes of English dialogue in the otherwise completely Spanish film.

Magenta Light Studios/Alliance Home Entertainment have released Fireflies at El Mozote on Blu-ray & Digital. We were sent a copy of the Blu-ray release for review. The video presentation looks very good, with a clean and detailed picture. The audio presentation provide a very immersive experience, capturing the ambiance of the forest, the rattle of the gunfire, and the roar of helicopters overhead. It puts the viewer in the middle of the action.

The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase. Our review copy did not include a slipcover. The disc is barebones, with no bonus material, and no digital copy is included.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:38:46)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: Spanish 5.1 DTS-HD MA (There is some English spoken)
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material included.

Final Thoughts:

Fireflies at El Mozote tells the story of one of the worst atrocities perpetrated by government forces on civilians in modern Latin American history. While the event itself is portrayed in a brutal and emotional way, the character drama that follows feels a bit lacking, not fully fleshed out, and somewhat repetitive. The viewer never really forms a connection to these characters. And what should be a big emotional connection to the title feels more like an unearned throwaway line. That said, the Blu-ray presentation is solid for fans of the film, but there is no bonus material included.