Coraje plot
Coraje is about the last months in the life of María Elena Moyano, who was murdered in February 1992 at the age of thirty-three by the Peruvian revolutionary movement Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). María Elena was the founder and leader of the so-called Women's Federation of Villa El Salvador, a slum built in the desert on the outskirts of Lima and run by the inhabitants themselves. This community has been awarded various prizes abroad. Two months before the brutal attack, María had spoken out against Shining Path's hate and violence campaign, and although she was called 'Mama Coraje' by the local press, she signed her death warrant. The film is narrated by a female Spanish doctor, who remembers María's last months. We see the difficult circumstances under which the vital and charismatic María did her work: the economic crisis, the hunger in the Villa, the bureaucratic resistance and the increasing terror of the Senderos.