“The patchwork quality of the aesthetics of Les Survivants du Che mirrors the variety of tribulations the characters are exposed to in their odyssey.”

With Les Survivants du Che, Christophe Dimitri Réveille adds a new chapter to his tale of the life of Dariel Alarcón Ramírez, who under the nickname “Benigno” was among the closest lieutenants of Che Guevara throughout his years of guerrilla warfare. From the Sierra Maestra mountains in Cuba to Congo and ultimately Bolivia, Benigno fought side by side with Che. It’s a story told before by Réveille, first as a biographical memoir, then as a graphic novel, and now as a feature documentary, with its main focus on how Benigno and the last guerrillas managed to flee Bolivia after Che Guevara was captured and executed (the film’s first act does walk us through the years of fighting that preceded it and put them in this predicament). Les Survivants du Che combines interviews, archive footage, bits shot on location in Bolivia, and scenes recreated through animation, all to retrace the steps of the six men who survived the mythical revolutionary during their months on the run.

Three of them (named Inti, Dario and El Ñato) were local fighters, while the three others (Benigno, Urbano and Pombo) were Cubans, members of the revolutionary movement since its very beginning. The reason why Benigno, at the time a young farmer, joined the armed struggle sets the tone for the rest of the film: for no reason, soldiers of the dictatorship burnt down his farm and murdered his pregnant wife. Such is the harsh reality of war, and violent acts of this nature, committed by both sides, will pave the way for the long walk the characters have to take. Tragic decisions and moments as well, from the very beginning: as the film starts with the capture of Che Guevara, fake news of his death broadcast by the Bolivian government will dissuade his comrades from coming to his rescue, even though they passed close by where he was held prisoner while he was still alive. If only they had known, they could at least have tried to save him.

The patchwork quality of the aesthetics of Les Survivants du Che mirrors the variety of tribulations the characters are exposed to in their odyssey, and the variety of tones that ensue. The initial tragedy of Che’s death is followed by suspenseful moments in which their lives hang in the balance, by picaresque encounters and devastating farewells, and by a final stretch across the Altiplano, the desert connecting Bolivia and Chile, which is seemingly endless for the soldiers and feels even more cruel after all they have already been through. There, above 12,000 feet, the film starts to feel like Gerry by Gus Van Sant, after a start that was closer to another powerful classic, Waltz With Bashir by Ari Folman. Mentioning this title makes it the perfect moment to point out that while Folman’s film was one of the very few animated features ever to be selected in the Cannes competition, Les Survivants du Che is, like so many others of its genre, confined to one of the festival sidebars, even though it lives up to the aforementioned references.

As we see the small group surviving the desert crossing and making it to a more welcoming country, we experience two additional feelings to the many we went through with them: relief, obviously, yet with a little touch of irony as their journey continues by plane. In less time than it took them to get across one country, and with so much more comfort and ease (especially in comparison to the part in the desert), they fly halfway around the world, with untroubled stopovers in many other countries. They reach their safe haven, France – where Benigno will come back to spend the last two decades of his life in exile in the Parisian suburbs, and meet Christophe Dimitri Réveille with whom he will share his war memories. The relativity of distance and danger between the two parts of the odyssey of Benigno and his fellow soldiers (unlike Ulysses, it is the first leg of their travel that was the hardest) is staggering, and can bring fuel to the revolutionary fire. It is indeed upsetting to see how opposite life conditions can be from one human group to another, and this realization can lead to a lifelong dedication to the struggle for more equality and dignity.