The Civilizers – Germans in Guatemala (1998)

Plot Summary

For more than a century, Guatemala has been home to a small yet highly influential German community. Its prosperity began with the coffee boom and has continued, almost uninterrupted, to the present day. Convinced of belonging to a superior culture, its members sought to impose their model of civilization on Guatemala. Elder coffee barons present faded photographs, and through their stories, the history of colonization unfolds. But the film shifts its gaze toward the other, toward the Indigenous people who labor on the plantations. The film portrays several generations of families and, without commentary, presents twentieth-century attitudes that time has relativized but not changed. A journey through questions of power, identity, and civilization. Based on years of extensive research, it offers a new analysis of colonialism and its destructive consequences in Guatemala and Latin America.

Full Cast & Characters

Julio Achilá

Self

Esteban Caal

Self

Felipe Caal

Self

Comunidades de Población en Resistencia (CPR)

Selves

Vicente Cruz

Self

Julio Delgado

Self

Jacobo Santiago Contreras

Self

Familia Droege

Selves

Mathilde Dieseldorff-Quirin

Self

Fritz García-Gallon

Self

Lily de Heinemann

Self

Manfred Krarz

Self

Director & Crew

Official Trailer

Where to Watch The Civilizers – Germans in Guatemala Online

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