Carla's Song
Directed by Ken Loach
Written by Paul Laverty
With Robert Carlyle, Oyanka Cabezas, Scott Glenn
Opens May 1
Review by Neville Spencer
Director Ken Loach has a reputation for consistently using his craft to promote struggles for social justice and against oppression, often running up against the media establishment. At the same time, he has won widespread critical acclaim, particularly for Land and Freedom (set during the Spanish Civil War), which won the International Critics' Prize at Cannes. In Carla's Song, he has turned his attention to the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.
In 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the US-backed Somoza dictatorship, which had ruled Nicaragua since 1934. Somoza had amassed an extraordinary fortune at the expense of the Nicaraguan people. Between himself and a small group of cronies, he had monopolised most of the country's land whilst many Nicaraguans had little or none.
The Sandinistas distributed Somoza's land to thousands of families. They built many schools and health care centres and began a nationwide campaign which raised literacy from 50% to 87%. They also held the first democratic election in decades, which the FSLN won comfortably.
The US, however, after losing its ally Somoza, began to fund and organise the Contra army, composed of many former members of Somoza's infamous National Guard.
The Contras attacked Nicaragua from the Honduran and Costa Rican borders. Unable to win any territory, they concentrated on economic sabotage, destroying grain silos, schools and health centres and killing teachers, while the US supported their efforts by planting mines in Nicaragua's harbours. More than 50,000 Nicaraguans died in the war.
The Sandinista revolution inspired many people around the world who campaigned to defend Nicaragua from US attacks or travelled there to pick coffee, offer medical care or to report to the world about what was really happening.
Glasgow lawyer Paul Laverty, who wrote the script for Carla's Song, was one such person. He went to Nicaragua to work with human rights organisations and witnessed first hand the Contra war and its devastating effect on Nicaragua's people and economy. "There was the very obvious sabotage: the US was funding the Contra to blow up bridges and using their satellite intelligence to hit detailed targets like cooperatives where the new seed-potato crop was ready and things like that.
"But every bit as effective was the stuff that was less visible, like the economic embargo. I remember, for instance, that milk distribution around the country broke down because of the shortage of spare parts for machines. And the amount of money they put into misinformation was incredible. What got me was the sheer sophistication that went into destroying Nicaragua. They had cartoons to distribute among the population which went into the tiniest detail about blocking up toilets or dropping typewriters, about how to short-circuit electricity and how to waste energy. I even came across bogus information being distributed to schools in Ireland!"
Returning home to Glasgow, Laverty supported the revolution by sharing his knowledge with solidarity groups and trade unions. Wishing that a broader audience could come to understand the situation in Nicaragua, he came up with the idea of writing a film script. Laverty approached Loach with a draft, and they collaborated to produce the film.
The film stars Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting and also Loach's Riff Raff) as George, a Glasgow bus driver who meets a Nicaraguan refugee, Carla, played by Oyanka Cabezas. A relationship develops, but Carla is severely troubled by her past, much of which is too painful to discuss. After losing his job, George decides to buy two tickets to Nicaragua, hoping that it might resolve Carla's emotional distress.
The film is set in 1987, at the height of the Contra war. George, previously quite ignorant of the situation in Nicaragua, becomes acquainted first hand with the gains of the revolution. Travelling to the north, where the Contra raids are concentrated and where Carla's family lives, he comes to know just how brutal the war against the revolution is and role of the US in organising it.
Carla's Song is a love story, but one intertwined with political and social struggle. This is true also of the first part of the film, set in Glasgow, much of which is reminiscent of Loach's films about working-class Britain.
Also, through Carla, the film reflects the experience of refugees who, apart from the emotional burdens of the past, have to contend with the problems of survival in an unfamiliar and often uncaring country.
As with many of Loach's films, Carla's Song focuses on ordinary people rather than national or international politics and class structure. But it develops these issues by illustrating how they intersect with people's lives: one of the novelties of Loach's films is that it is perfectly normal for ordinary people to discuss politics.
Carla's Song shows how such struggles can frustrate or devastate the lives of ordinary people. It also shows how ordinary people can resist, create hope and even overcome the web of alienation and oppression imposed upon them.