Nadie escuchaba

An impassioned documentary by Nestor Almendros, this documentary features Fidel Castro, Francois Mitterand, former Castro guerrilla comrade Huber Mattos, one of the only surviving original guerrillas, besides Castro's two brothers, dissident black writer Esteban Cardenas, and who would become an Honorary US Ambassador Armando Valladares. This documentary largely focuses on his well-known best-selling saga, published in North America in 1986 as AGAINST ALL HOPE, known in Spanish as Contra Toda Esperanza, 1984. He was released in 1982 after 22 years of torturous jail time, after exhaustive efforts by European Human Rights groups. The film shows that only after France's Socialist President Francois Mitterand's personal pleas to Castro, Socialist to "Socialist" was Valladares finally released. His historic and highly emotional arrival in Europe after 22 years in unspeakable conditions and separated from his wife, is a highlight of the documentary. If more people saw this documentary, eventually the title "Nobody Listened" will have to be changed to Nobody Listened for.... years. A must-see for human rights activists, and actually for all. The images captured in the footage shown here cannot be expressed in words.