The Hands of Che Guevara

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The Hands of Che Guevara
Directed by	Peter De Kock
Release date(s)	2005
IMDb profile

The Hands of Che Guevara (Dutch: De handen van Che Guevara; Spanish: Las manos de Che Guevara) is a 2005 documentary film made by Dutch film director Peter De Kock. The documentary is a search for the severed hands of the Latin American Guerilla fighter Ernesto Che Guevara.

After Guevara's execution in 1967, his hands where severed from his body and put in a jar of formaldehyde. From there and then, the hands disappeared from public view.

"The truth lies hidden in its' different interpretations." (Quote attributed to Che Guevara)

In 1997 the body of Ernest Che Guevara was found, buried under a landing strip in Bolivia. With its discovery the last mystery surrounding Guevara's life and death seemed to be resolved, until it became apparent that his hands were missing.

The documentary is a search for the severed and missing hands of Che Guevara. The search leads to a number of remarkable people; men and women who were prepared to risk their lives for two dead hands. Through their testimonies and anecdotes a story unfolds. A tale so bizarre and secret that it was banished to the shadow side of history.

The documentary The Hands of Che Guevara is a linear tale, built on the stories of several ‘first persons’. All the people involved tell about their part in history, each from their own point of view, featuring themselves as the main character. Each story is coloured, romanticised and embellished and all stories emphasise the intrepidity of the first person. They fit together like beads on a necklace. The stories are told with a great sense for drama and big themes like trust and betrayal, truth and reality, tricks and deceit. By stringing together the small, subjective stories of each person involved, slowly a larger, ‘objective’ history becomes visible. Like a mosaic from which one slowly distances oneself.

Although at the end of the movie it becomes apparent that some stories have been spectacularly embellished, the chain-story they form undeniably leads to present time.