Your Neighbor's Son

Infobox Film
name = Your Neighbor's Son
director = Jørgen Flindt Pedersen
Erik Stephensen
producer = Ebbe Preisler
cinematography = Alexander Gruszynski
editing = Peter Engleson
released = 1976/1981
runtime = 55/65 minutes, NR
language = Greek, English subtitles
country = Denmark

"Your Neighbor's Son: The Making of a Torturer", (Danish: "Din nabos søn" or "Din nabos soen"), is a documentary or docudrama directed by Jørgen Flindt Pedersen and Erik Stephensen in two versions, 1976 and 1981. The film documents the conversion of young Greek police recruits into torturers and touches on the subject of the power of the institution to compel otherwise moral human beings to torture. The documentary examines the processes and methods of the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

ynopsis

The documentary dramatizes the recruiting and training of a number of young men into the Greek police force during the military junta rule. A number of otherwise decent young men are selected based on a number of traits viewed as exploitable by the recruiters : illiterate, anti-communist, young and male, drawing comparisons to the Cambodian torturers at Tuol Sleng, many of whom were under 19 years old. [cite journal|last=Van Gelder|first=Lawrence|title=Din nabos soen|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=157325|publisher=The NY Times]

The film also interviews Michailis Petrou, one of the Greek policeman involved in the tortures who agreed to testify against his peers in exchange for a reduced sentence. Petrou's testimony reveals that the training methods themselves were brutal and often torturous and was viewed as a necessity to ensure the robotic and brutal obedience of the trainees.

During the dramatic recreation of the training camps, the directors draw parallels to modern military boot camps and the methods used in the training of soldiers.

Response

New York Times columnist Lawrence Van Gelder noted that while the film was technically flawed it was at the same time "memorable and unnerving" in its depiction of both the victims of the torture as well as the ordeals of the torturers themselves, and claimed "it is impossible to regard its torturers or its victims without realizing that the view may be a view into a mirror." [cite journal|last=Van Gelder|first=Lawrence|title= DANISH 'PHOENIX' AND 'NEIGHBOR'S SON'|url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?_r=3&res=9504E6D9143AF93AA1575BC0A962948260&oref=slogin&oref=login|publisher=The NY Times|date=August 29, 1984]

References

External links

* [http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/bibliographies/filmography.html SELECT FILMOGRAPHY ON HUMAN RIGHTS]