108 – Cuchillo de Palo (2010)

Anecdotes

108 Cuchillo de Palo is a Paraguayan-Spanish documentary film, directed by Renate Costa and released in 2010. The film centres on Costa's investigation into the life and death of her uncle Rodolfo, who was one of over 600 gay men scapegoated by the authoritarian government of Alfredo Stroessner for the 1982 kidnapping of Mario Luis Palmieri in Asunción.

Background

The documentary's title' '108 Cuchillo de Palo' translates as '108 wooden knife', references the Spanish saying 'En casa de herrero cuchillo de palo' (in the blacksmith's house, wooden spoon). The number represents the initial number of LGBTQ+ people taken by the police in the 1959 anti-queer/trans raid, and the phrase alludes to the uselessness of a society that cannot protect the individual in it.

The documentary was produced 21 years after the fall of the Paraguayan dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, under whose reign gay men were frequently detained and tortured. From the original '108' LGBTQ+ people that were taken, an ever-expanding list with their names was created, with the 108 names, and then, throughout the years, many more.

Women's Studies scholar Eva Karene Romero notes that 108 / Cuchillo de Palo was the first Paraguayan film to feature queer protagonists. Further, “Cuchillo was the first film to take on the Stroessner dictatorship in an overt, literal way, by shedding light on the regime’s persecution of homosexuals." In order to shed light on the history of state violence against queer people, Costa documented testemonios from victims about the caso Aranda and c…

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