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“Finding Oscar” is a feature-length documentary about the search for justice in the devastating case of the Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala. That search leads to the trail of two little boys who were plucked from a nightmare and offer the only living evidence that ties the Guatemalan government to the massacre.
In 1982, the village of Dos Erres in Guatemala was given the “scorched earth” treatment by a special operations unit of the Guatemalan Army, the Kaibiles. All of its villagers (men, women, and children) were murdered. Some executed and tossed down a well and others thrown into the well still alive. Before their fates were decided, the women were raped and forced to cook for the captors. The only survivors of the massacre (aside from villagers who weren’t present) were two young boys, ages 3 and 5, Oscar Ramirez and Ramiro Cristales. Ryan Suffern’s “Finding Oscar,” is a harrowing telling of the Dos Erres massacre, the search for justice, and the search for Oscar, an important missing link in the story.
The events are recounted, talking head style, by relatives of those massacred in Dos Erres and by those looking to put the pieces together including forensic anthropologist Freddy Peccerelli and human rights prosecutor Sara Romero. Peccerelli and his team exhume the bodies and piece them together so that the surviving relatives may give them proper burials and provide a form of closure. Sara Romero gathers information for a case in hopes to provide justice for the victims and their families. The information she has gathered comes from two former soldiers of the Kaibil special operations unit of the Guatemalan army.
One man, who was a cook for the Kaibiles, recounts the massacre and tells of two boys that were spared and taken by two soldiers to their families and raised as part of those families. One boy is Oscar, who was 3 years old when taken and had no memory of the massacre or of his former family. The other boy, Ramiro, was 5 and memory of the massacre fully intact, recounting with stomach-churning detail what befell the villagers, including his mother and little sister. It takes a decade and more confessions and corroborations are had before the case is strong enough to not be tossed out. And the final detail is Oscar.
Where is Oscar? Finding Oscar (as the title suggests) is the main thread in this documentary. It’s not just about corroboration, but about tightening loose ends and telling someone their history. Telling someone they aren’t who they think they are. Telling someone their family was wiped out by a man who was looked at as a father and a hero, it is by no means an easy feat. But then we do finally find Oscar and it’s a story with a heartwarming end tinged with a bit of melancholy. It’s a reconnecting with father and son that no one expected. And in the end of it all, justice is served as Oscar travels back to Guatemala from the United States to give his testimony. Soldiers are sentenced and the former President Efrain Rios Montt is brought to face his crimes as well.
Ryan Suffern’s “Finding Oscar” is a devastating documentary but unendingly valuable. I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no knowledge of the decades-long civil war in Guatemala. It happened well before my time, and in many U.S. schools, history, including world history, stops after World War II. Anything beyond that you have to stumble upon yourself or take specialized courses in college. So, “Finding Oscar,” was an eye-opener, for me, and I recommend it as a must-see for anyone and everyone.
Now playing at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas
