Crise, canular et dystopie en Équateur : le documenteur Un secreto en la caja de Javier Izquierdo (2016)

Abstract

A vast cultural production asks the question about the invisibility of Ecuador in the international arena by describing it as an impossible country, as the country of the imaginary line -the equator to which it owes its name-, a line that cannot be seen and, therefore, that does not exist. The Ecuadorian emblematic figure of this invisibility is Marcelo Chiriboga, the greatest writer of the Latin-American boom... who never existed, whose biography is shown in the pseudo-documentary Un secreto en la caja (A Secret in the Box), directed by Javier Izquierdo in 2016. The pseudo-documentary is based on special effects, photomontage and falsification in order to create a new truth, in the “alternative facts” kind of way. Through the biography of Chiriboga, the pseudo-documentary announces an ultimate crisis, an absolute dystopia, echo of the different territorial losses since Independence : the dismemberment of the territory and the disappearance of Ecuador.

Keywords

• Ecuador
• Crisis
• Territory
• Dystopia
• Cinema
• Javier Izquierdo