Courage (1999)

Coraje is about the last few months in the life of María Elena Moyano, who was killed at the age of 33 by the Peruvian revolutionary movement Sendero Luminoso. María Elena was the founder and leader of the so-called Women's Federation of Villa El Salvador, a slum district that had been built in the desert on the outskirts of Lima and was run by the inhabitants themselves. This community won several prizes abroad, such as the 'Messenger City of Peace'. Two months before the brutal attack, María has spoken out against the campaign of hatred and violence of Sendero Luminoso and even though she was called 'Mama Coraje' by the local press, that condemned her to death.The film is narrated by a female Spanish doctor who remembers María's last months. We see the difficult conditions in which the vital and charismatic María did her work: the economic crisis, the hunger in the Villa, the bureaucratic opposition and increasing terror of the Senderos. But Coraje is above all a lively and intimate portrait of a fascinating woman who is not portrayed as a inviolable heroine, but as an ordinary woman with two children and a husband who is characterised by doubts and despair as well as courage. The film is bolstered by the more than convincing actress Olenka Cepeda in the role of María.