Les Survivants du Che (Che Guevara: The Last Companions) by Christophe Dimitri Réveille: an exceptional documentary

What was the starting point for your documentary?  

It all began with a book about Che that I read in 2003 or 2004. At the end, there was a line that read: “Six men made it out of Bolivia alive.” I thought to myself “Who were these six guys?” One of them was in Paris. I went to meet him. It was Benigno, a hero of the Cuban Revolution who had decided to leave his former life behind and come live in Paris. I started writing his biography with him. Then, at one point in 2013, I went to Bolivia and realized that I could meet a second man, then a third. It snowballed from there, and eventually, I met them all. 

Why did this subject capture your interest so much? 

I lost my mother when I was 17. I felt a bit lost, and when I stumbled upon their story, I thought to myself, there are guys who’ve lost more than I have and who’ve found purpose in their lives. What interested me was what you don’t read in history books, the people in the shadows that nobody talks about. Because through the individual stories, you get a better grasp of the bigger picture, and leaders are nothing without those people. 

It took 22 years to make the film. What were the main stages? 

I met the first survivor in December 2004. From 2004 to 2013, I did a lot of research, traveled, and built up a network of contacts in Latin American left-wing circles. Those circles operate on trust. I never lied to them. I met the last survivor in 2017. Some of them agreed to meet me because my contacts stood as guarantors for me. With some others, I had to break down some barriers by going through their friends and family. As for Urbano (the one who lived in Brussels), during the interview I had to beg him: “You are the only survivor who went to Cochabamba. If I don’t have your story, I can’t make the film.” I didn’t go home happy that evening — I was so convinced I didn’t have enough material. 

The film mixes personal accounts, archival footage, and animated sequences. How did you achieve this balance? 

Some of the archive footage is previously unseen, including color footage of the survivors’ return to Cuba, which we eventually tracked down and purchased from the Americans (intelligence agencies were therefore onsite that day). For the animation, we worked with the colorist to find a color palette that matched my analog photos — contrasty, slightly blurry, typical of the 1970s. We succeeded in matching the budget to the artistic vision with fragmented animation, using the same colors as my photos, and it weaves in between the archives and the personal accounts. 

There is a thrilling exfiltration sequence in the film: the survivors travel around the world before returning to Cuba. Who helped them? 

Allende. He personally escorted them from Chile to Easter Island and then on to Tahiti, to bypass countries that would have sent them back to Bolivia. At the time, Barrientos asked the United Nations to repatriate the guerrillas. Countries along the route had said: we’ll send them back. So they needed to take a flight that would avoid all of that. After Tahiti, the French government took charge. It’s harder to blow up a French plane. But right up until the very end, the survivors didn’t trust them. Benigno told me: when they offered to remove the bullet in his shoulder, he said: “No, they’ll do it in Cuba.” They were scared they would kill them on the operating table. 

What still remained to be told that no one had said already? 

That’s what the whole film is about. Everyone thought the story had ended with Che’s death. Everyone knew about Che. No one knew there were survivors. No one knows that there are survivors who made it out alive from the place where Che died. Now they’re going to know about it.