I Will Be Murdered

On paper, it seems like something out of a bad soap opera. A powerful man is shot in the street. The event sends his family into shock as they struggle with trying to understand who would target the victim. Then at the funeral, a man comes forward, handing out DVD’s that he claims contain the truth about the deceased.

On the DVD is the departed, saying quite matter-of-factly “If you’re watching this, I was murdered”.

No, dear reader, I have not pulled that synopsis from any pulpy piece of fiction. That is the story at the centre of the true documentary, I WAS MURDERED, one of the most handsome and unforgettable films to play this year’s Hot Docs festival.

The film begins by outlining what I have just told you, with a powerful Guatemalan lawyer named Rodrigo Rosenberg playing the part of the deceased. As we get thrown into the deep end, we’re given one more seemingly unbelievable piece of information. As we watch the video the mourners were handed, we hear Rosenberg not only claim murder, but also name his murderer: Guatemalan President, Alvaro Colom.

The film begins to unfold itself in a wonderfully handsome manner, leaving us to play the part of both witness and audience as this bombshell is dropped. The microphone is given over to Rosenburg’s son, Eduardo, an intelligence expert named Mendizábal, and a high-ranking UN prosecutor named Castresana. They look square at us as they unveil the long and complicated story behind the death of Rosenburg, each of them wearing their conviction on their sleeve. There’s a weariness in their voices that tells us right away that the fact of the matter will take a lot of explaining, and that it may not take us down the road we would expect.

What’s so amazing about Rosenburg’s story is the way it galvanized the Guatemalan people. As Castresana puts it in the early going, the video is an accusation – it isn’t evidence. However, in the court of public opinion, it might as well be a smoking gun. It’s the risky climate of group-think, and what can happen when we rally around a symbol. When things aren’t right, all it takes is the right photograph, or the right soundbite, and all of a sudden the flags come out and the protest begins. The accusation feeds our very unrest, and gives us an outlet for our anger. We might not know what’s true – and we might not even care. For that moment, the revolution is televised.

After the film lets us linger amidst the protest chants for a few moments, it gets down to the task of uncovering what happened. As to be expected, the truth is deeply convoluted. It is a story of passion, principle, intricacy, and corruption. It makes one question just what it is to be “an honourable person”, and the lengths one will go to in order to gain a measure of control.

I WILL BE MURDERED does a wonderful job of seeking the truth, and does so by letting people of integrity recount the story. Rosenburg gets to make his bold proclamation, and Colom is curiously absent – but in the end they don’t matter. They would turn the story into “he said – he said”. What allows the documentary to win us over in its quest for the truth is the way it is primarily told by Eduardo, Mendizábal, and Castresana. Not only do they ground the entire narrative, despite their interests and allegiances being varied. It’s clear that they all share a common desire for honest answers…no matter what scandal it may cause.

This documentary wins both on story and style. It understands that just telling a great story isn’t enough anymore, you have to make the audience feel like they are discovering the story for themselves.

I WILL BE MURDERED plays Hot Docs 2013 on Wednesday May 1st – 3:30pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox. It plays The Lightbox twice more after that. First on Saturday May 4th – 2pm, and again on Sunday May 5th at 9pm.