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Tanias Story
Truth is, she’s been living a lie, for many years now. Every single day, she betrays her deepest convictions in order to serve them – all for the benefit of the great idea, the secret plan. She waits for Ernesto Che Guevara, the man who has promised to take the Cuban revolution to all of Latin America. She knows, among only a handful of people on earth, where his next fight is to begin – right here in Bolivia. Che has personally given her the order to prepare it. And so she spies on the local regime, counting the days to his arrival, alone and far from home: worldly Buenos Aires, where she was born, socialist Germany, the land of her parents, joyously liberated Havana. The Cuban secret service has given her a codename: Tania. One evening in November of 1966, Che and a handful of comrades finally arrive in Tanias apartment, unbeknownst to the CIA and the world powers. They are passing through on their way to the jungle up North, where the fighting is due to begin. To Tania, their presence seems like a passing dream. Her duties in La Paz are now more important than ever – and more hopeless at the same time. She’s supposed to keep drinking Champagne, keep lying and listening, while somewhere else, bullets will finally speak the truth. And yet she’s ready to sacrifice herself – until the moment she breaks down in the middle of the day, is brought to a hospital and learns she has cancer. Returning to her parents in Germany, the doctors say, could save her life – maybe. But Tania decides on a different route: Every day she has left, she will use with utmost determination for the great cause. Against her orders, she leaves the city and makes her way to Che’s base camp in the North, where the Guerrilla prepares for battle. Yet before she has a chance to tell the Commandante about her sickness, bad news come in over the radio: Two Bolivian deserters from the camp have given away it’s location – and also Tania’s true identity – to the military. So now, there’s no way back for her, she will have to move with the group and fight. She welcomes the danger and clarity of this new situation, it feels like a salvation. Only now she has to hide the fact that she is dying – she wants to complete her journey without being pitied or favoured by her comrades.
For everyone not blinded by ideology, the truth becomes apparent pretty soon: In this country, people are not on the brink of revolution, this will not be a new Vietnam, and the whole exercise seems more and more pointless. Also, Tania is unable to hide her sickness anymore – during long marches, she trails behind, prompting Che to assign her to the rearguard. His plan to move in separate groups proves to be a fateful mistake: The units can’t seem to connect anymore, Che and his vanguard are lost. The rearguard is a pretty dispirited lot, lead by hesitant commander Joaquin. Thank God Marcos is also with them – his open criticism of Che has led to his relegation. The secret agent marked by death, the dishonoured fighter, they fall in love – a flare-up of passions in already desperate circumstances. The idea to abandon the fight slowly creeps in on them, even Marcos dreams of a new, more peaceful life with Tania. She knows she should tell him that this is impossible, her cancer has progressed way too far – yet she can’t find the heart to do it. Finally, he summons all his courage to pose the fateful question, high treason for any Guerrillero yet somehow unavoidable: In the end, isn’t love more important than revolution? Tania feels what answer she would give, but she can’t anymore. All she wants now is a dignified end. With her death-defying conviction she even spurs the others to move on, and so she becomes “Tania La Guerrillera”, feared by her enemies, a legend of the Bolivian Andes even today. During a firefight with US-trained Army Rangers, Tania’s death wish is about to be fulfilled - when Marcos sacrifices his life to rescue her. She mourns her lover but knows he is only leading the way by a few steps: The enemy is closing in, the last traitor has already been paid, an ambush is being prepared along the bank of the Rio Grande… |
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La Paz, Bolivia, in the mid-sixties. A military regime of laughably operatic generals around René Barrientos, the corrupt president. It’s a lazy provincial outpost of US imperialism, high up in the Andes, ignored by the powers of the world. Among the local big shots, there’s a young woman on the rise. Beautiful, ambitious, an elegant opportunist, trophy in a Macho world, ready to do anything to advance her career… or so it seems.
Soon, all ideas of a romantic liberation army dissolve in a quagmire of problems and hardship. The miles are gruelling, food is scarce, and Che, almost suffocating from asthma, doesn’t seem to know any mercy - least of all for himself. His plan to radicalise and recruit local peasants doesn’t show any promise: Too often, they have to hide, too alien they seem to the scattered peasants they meet along the way. While the group’s general mood is darkening, Tania makes existential new discoveries: the adrenalin rush of danger, the devil may care attitude of Cuban veterans, the first Guerrillero killed in action. An ace marksman in the gun clubs of her Socialist youth, she’s ready for combat – if she can only overcome her fear. Marcos, never seen without his heavy machine gun, encourages her. In Cuba, he used to be a revolutionary hero and member of the State Council, now he’s back in arms where he feels most comfortable. He’s a fighting machine, completely confident in his body and his abilities, a physical presence Tania can’t easily ignore. Furthermore, he’s an independent thinker. More and more, he challenges Che on what he thinks are grave strategic mistakes.