Che Guevara: Where You’d Never Imagine Him
2004
Manuel Perez

We were excited to see the title of this film.  After all, it echoes the whole point of this site — spotting Che where you’d never imagine him and sharing it with the world!

But unfortunately, this documentary is a pretty standard biographical review of Che’s life from childhood to death.

The film is mostly in black and white, consisting of grainy footage, including home movies of Che’s childhood.

All the interviews seemed to be clips from conversations filmed for other projects, though, which makes the movie feel like a compilation film.  One notable appearance, however, was by Che’s father, Ernesto Sr.

Excerpts from Che’s essays, books and his letters home make up much of the narration.  In one of his letters home, pre-revolutionary Ernesto discusses his inner struggle between socialist and traveler.  Later, in a letter to his family before leaving to spread his idealism abroad, Che states he is split between Cuba, family, and the act of freeing nations while fighting against social injustice.

This documentary comes to us from Cuba, which lends a little different mix of footage. But interestingly, this Cuban portrayal of this Cuban Revolutionary hero is not significantly different from documentaries produced anywhere else in the world.