Recommended by a journalist from a communist country during a film festival I had some initial hesitation regarding watching this film. However after having seen this highly artistic film,I am ready to say that it is one of the most original films made in recent times.I find it difficult to swallow the comparison made with US film "Taxi Driver". By making such a weird comparison people are belittling this film.My favorite moments from this film are the confrontation scenes. They bear testimony to the fact that a person besieged with problems has to fight ferociously to overcome all troubles. Some of the sequences had a dream like air to them.To a layman the title of the film "Days of Santiago" suggests how he passes his days.But to a serious film goer it denotes the entire past,present and future life of Santiago. Peruvian actor Pietro Sibylle is a great attraction of this film. The troublesome feelings of anger,hopelessness, frustration, anxiety and despair are much too visible on his woebegone face.A truly valid reason to watch this film.

Peruvian writer/director Josue Mendez has made a brave little low budget film that deals with a subject currently burgeoning our hospitals in this country as the fallout of the war on Iraq and still plagues the veterans of the Vietnam War - Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (aka Battle Rattle). This is a difficult topic to dramatize without being preachy or maudlin, but Mendez has succeeded where others have failed.Santiago (Pietro Sibille) is a 23-year-old retired veteran who was conscripted at age 16 and trained to be a killer - assigned to fighting in the war against Ecuador, against terrorists, and against the drug mafia. He returns to his family in Lima a damaged, broken, paranoid misfit who tries to leave his military past behind but mentally returns to it as the only time he felt important. Unable to work he finally begins to drive a taxi and encounters all manner of passengers - wealthy men, girls on the party circuit, disreputable people of all types. He tries desperately to adjust to the post-military life, but find his family in shambles, a wholly dysfunctional unit to which he can no longer relate. How he finds his 'place' in this chaos is the subject of Mendez' story (Mendez has based this on a true story/stories and knows his subject well).Pietro Sibille as Santiago delivers a credible performance, one that consistently borders on fragmentation of a mind deeply scarred by war and fighting. The remainder of the cast is fine. Mendez uses a mixture of black and white film with color segments and this is distracting to annoying: if the choices of film related consistently to a tenor in the story (which is not the case) then this technique could be considered artistic.The manner in which the story is related is very much in keeping with the fragmented and paranoid mindset of Santiago and for this the director is to be commended for successfully achieving the next to impossible! Many strong points to a film that is flawed by technical problems. Grady Harp

Dias de Santiago is the opera prima of a Peruvian director that with very low budget managed to tell the stressful story of Santiago. It is a strong movie... I think that people that like independent movies will love this one.The plot: Santiago is a 23 year old retire marine that returns to Lima after 3 years from fighting in the Peruvian jungle against drug traffic, terrorism and a conflict with neighbor country, Ecuador. Although Santiago was constantly attacked by guilty feelings of the abuses committed by the Peruvian Armed Forces while he was in service (women, children and old people were assassinated with no apparent cause; young women were rapped by members of the armed force; under-the-table negotiations were made with drug mobs, etc.) he was proud of who he was back then. Back in Lima, Peru's centralized capital, things are very different. This chaotic concrete jungle has its own rules, mostly unwritten ones. Santiago is obsessed in trying to decipher the codes, but he fails because his family and friends don't live the structured way of the army.

I visited the world premiere of this film at the Rotterdam Film Festival in The Netherlands, and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't know anything about the film, except that it was from Peru. It turned out to be a very striking, powerful movie; mixing beautiful visuals with a simple story.The film's about a young man, Santiago. He has served his time in the military, and the violence he has seen and experienced has affected him deeply. His whole generation has the same problem: they are veterans (but they're only 20-something years old) and have no work. Many of his friends turn to crime, but not Santiago. He starts to work as a taxidriver in Lima, and the camera follows him several days. (the movie translates as 'Days of Santiago') We see how he deals with the world. Santiago is extremely paranoid and doesn't know how to interact with people. He meets a lot of girls, but doesn't know what to do or say. His experiences in the army, although they are never shown in flashback, have left marks.The film is visually original; color mixes with black-and-white. But this is no gimmick, it helps to illustrate the inner struggle of Santiago.The acting is superb, especially from Pietro Sibille as Santiago.The story is based on real life experiences from a veteran, and many things really happened. The director, Josue Mendez, who was present at the Rotterdam Film Festival, explained that there are lots of guys like Santiago in Peru, a whole 'lost generation', forced in joining the military at a young age, and having a hard time dealing with society when they return. However, a large part of the film focuses on Santiago's family, and that part is entirely fictional. Of course, you can't help but thinking about 'Taxi driver', Scorsese's famous movie, which also centers around a taxi driver who has emotional problems and can't deal with the world. However, the films are incomparable, because the style and substance are very different. 'Dias de santiago' will probably never be as well-known as 'Taxi driver', but it certainly deserves to be. See it, when you have the chance.