THE ABSOLUTE GIFT, THE STORY OF SEBASTIÁN ACEVEDO
Year: 2023
Director: Josefina Morandé
Production: Bamba Films
Music: Catalina Claro / Pablo Ávila
Editing: Josefina Morandé
Editing Assistant: Andrea Chignoli
Script Advisor: Carmen Castillo / M. Paz González
Camera: Pablo Valdés
Additional Camera: Valeria Fuentes, Pablo Ávila, Luis Portocarrero, Obrero Audiovisual, Josefina Morandé.
Direct Sound: Juan Pablo Manríquez
Image Post-Production: Diáspora
Sound Post-Production: Sonic
TRAILER
STORYLINE
In 1983, in front of the Cathedral of Concepción, a man, exhausted from searching for his two detained sons, doused his body with gasoline and set himself on fire in an act of self-immolation. In response to this event, the “Sebastián Acevedo Movement Against Torture” was founded in Santiago, Chile. Its principal founder, José Aldunate, together with Sebastián’s children, Candelaria Acevedo and Galo Acevedo, are the central figures of this story.
SINOPSIS
Chile, November 11, 1983. In the midst of the military dictatorship, a man arrives at the front of the Cathedral of Concepción, pleading for the release of his two sons, members of the Communist Youth, who had been detained by state agents. “Let the CNI give back my sons!” he cries out desperately before passersby who watch the scene in shock.
When the police try to detain him, the man—who had previously doused his body with gasoline—sets himself on fire.
Engulfed in flames, he runs toward the Plaza de Armas until he collapses. Hours later, he dies. His name was Sebastián Acevedo.
For days he had gone from barracks to churches to institutions, searching for news of his sons. Getting no answers, he came to understand that they might have been detained by the CNI and added to the dictatorship’s long list of the disappeared. His extreme act—the first case of political self-immolation recorded in Chile—shook the nation’s conscience and became a symbol of protest against the systematic violations of human rights.
Out of this event arose the “Sebastián Acevedo Movement Against Torture,” a pluralistic, nonviolent organization that publicly denounced the practice of torture in the regime’s detention centers.
In this story, two opposing forces converge: one that persecutes, imprisons, tortures, and kills; and another that resists through solidarity, love, and the giving of one’s own life for others.
THE DIRECTOR'S MOTIVATION
My interest in telling Sebastián Acevedo’s story stems from a personal experience. For three years, during the dictatorship, I lived in a marginalized neighborhood south of Santiago, where I witnessed the fear, persecution, and repression affecting the most vulnerable communities. It was there that I met José Aldunate, a worker-priest Jesuit, whose consistency of life and commitment to human rights profoundly shaped my outlook.
Years later, by then working in film, I felt the need to return to that memory.
While making my documentary “Hoy y no mañana” (“Today and Not Tomorrow”), I delved deeper into the story of Sebastián Acevedo, his family, and the Movement Against Torture that emerged after his self-immolation. I also had the privilege of documenting the last years of José Aldunate’s life and one of his final interviews.
With “El Don Absoluto” (“The Absolute Gift”), I seek to recover the memory of those who resisted the dictatorship through dignity and active nonviolence. I am interested in preserving the human and ethical legacy of these people, and in reflecting on the relevance of that path in Chile today.
Josefina Morandé R-T
FILM STILLS
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