Corona Cork Film Festival - A Promise To The Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman

A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman is an exploration of exile, memory, longing and democracy, as seen through the experiences of the world-renowned writer, Ariel Dorfman – best known as author of Death And The Maiden. Dorfman’s books have been translated into over thirty languages and his plays performed in more than one hundred countries.

Born in Argentina,but raised in NewYork until his family was exiled to Chile during the Red Scare, Dorfman became Cultural Attaché to Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende. When the Allende government was toppled in the military coup of September 11, 1973, Dorfman was among a handful of Allende’s inner circle to survive.Years later, he was told that his life was spared because someone had to live to tell the story. The documentary was filmed in the USA, Argentina and Chile in late 2006, coinciding with the death of former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet. The film is based, in part, on Dorfman’s best-selling memoir, Heading South, Looking North.

What’s most impressive about Raymont’s film is how it transcends mere profile. It smartly locates the continuity between the past and present, juxtaposing Dorfman’s laments about the fall of Salvador
Allende with optimistic snapshots of the left leaning wave sweeping South America. – Montage Magazine