Caption:
Miguel Littin and his daughter Christina Littin.
Photograph: Rajan
CELEBRATED author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s list of books figures a name, Miguel Littin. And he is real. Littin, the hero of Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin, showcases his film, The Last Moon, which tracks the origin of the Middle East conflict.
Unlike his earlier films, The Last Moon narrating the friendship between a Palestinian Arab and a Palestinian Jew has an underlying vein of humane humour. Littin’s daughter, Christine, agrees. “Yes, he is a man with such an incredible sense of humour and he never uses that in his films.”
Littin is a name handed down to the family by a border-guard. Miguel’s grandfather had sought refuge in Chile from Palestine, and while being scrutinised at the border, the guard asked for his family name. He interpreted it as Littin and so it stayed.
Marquez’s book on Littin portrays his clandestine visit to Chile after being exiled during the turmoil that followed the assassination of the country’s president, Salvador Allende. Littin disguised himself as a businessman from Uruguay and spent six weeks documenting the ground realities in Chile under Augusto Pinochet.
On his part, Littin had filmed The Widow Montiel, based on a short story by the Nobel Prize winner. He had also filmed works of Latin American and Cuban classicists including Alejo Carpentier and Pedro Prado.
The Last Moon was shot in the Middle East during 2003. And true homecoming wasn’t easy for Littin, who was elected twice as mayor of his town in Chile. He had to plan ingenious ways to get past the scrutiny of Israelis. At one time, he took his Palestinian cast and crew in two pick-ups with Chilean flags to take them to Dead Sea, which was out of bounds for them.
While returning they were held for eight hours but Littin says the emotional experience he could read in the eyes of the Palestinians at the sight of Dead Sea is worth the effort. And perhaps that could be the subject matter of another movie.
He also remembers the fear psychosis unleashed by the Israeli army during the making of the film. “There would be gun-totting female soldiers on the ground and helicopters flying overhead,” Littin says.
Littin’s first work, The Jackal of Nahueltoro (1969), is regarded as one of the best films from Chile in the last century. He subsequently made The Promised Land, Letters from Marusia, El Recurso Del Metodo, Alsino and the Condor, Sandino (about the life of Augusto Cesar Sandino, Nicaragua’s national hero) and Tierra del Fuego. His documentaries include the powerful Comrade President, dedicated to Allende; and Final Statement on Chile, the one he filmed secretly and was to inspire Marquez to dedicate the book in his honour. In 2001, he presented A Palestinian Chronicle. And with The Last Moon, he indeed goes straight back to his roots.
Littin had arrived to Dubai from India, where he headed the competition section of the International Indian Film Festival (IFFI). He had earlier served on the jury of IFFI, and Littin says India is like his second home. “I feel at home there.” He likes everything about the country, and that fascination will soon translate on-screen as he readies to make a film based on a poem by India’s Nobel Prize winning littérateur Rabindranath Tagore. Littin says he is on constant search for literary works that moves him.
From Tagore, he once again looks back towards his roots with the film of a Chilean woman who returns to her homeland, Palestine. Unlike The Last Moon, which is set in the years during and after World War I, the new film, he says, will be contemporary. Another film about Palestine might be about the first time he visited Palestine in 1995. “We never knew our relatives there and searching for them, the feeling of surprise after meeting them… that could be another film.”
He says The Last Moon is relevant because it “shows the origin of the conflict. I wanted to let the world know that there are not bombs and terror in the region; there are living people, who have a culture of their own.”
Littin says the streak of humour that marks his recent films could be a reflection of the changes in life. “Life is like a classical tragic-comedy,” observes the 61-year-old. Perhaps he has entered into that phase where after many years of struggle, he is subconsciously seeking out a literary catharsis. But he has no regrets.
“My life had been truly emotional – there were powerful moments that influenced and affected me. Today, I have friends all over the world, a loving family. I am happy writing and making movies.”
He is content about the fact that he has played his "minor role," along with countless others, in bringing about a socio-political change in Chile. But would he forget and forgive Augusto Pinochet? He answers for the people who never can: “Those who had their loving ones missing… they can never forget or forgive Pinochet.”
