Bel Canto (2018)

Set in an unspecified country in South America, a famous opera singer (Julianne Moore) is performing at a private concert in honor of a wealthy Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe). The country's president is scheduled to attend but he cancels. But the concert is interrupted when a group of terrorist guerrillas invade the home and hold the guests hostage in exchange for their demands which includes the release of all political prisoners. Based on the prize winning novel by Ann Patchett and directed by Paul Weitz (ABOUT A BOY). Though not specifically addressed, the film (and novel) is obviously based on the 1996 Japanese embassy crisis in Lima, Peru where revolutionaries invaded the Japanese ambassador's residence and held hostages for 126 days until commandos rushed the residence and killed all the guerrillas. In the aftermath, there was strong evidence that the revolutionaries were systematically executed after surrendering which caused an outcry from human rights organizations. The film is fiction but it portrays the guerrillas sympathetically and suggests that the hostages and guerrillas bonded and became "family" and even seemed to accept the status quo. After awhile, we can feel it's going to end badly. No doubt there will be those who feel the "terrorists" deserved what they got but no one deserves to be murdered after surrendering or given a chance to surrender. While elements of the film seem far fetched (the added romantic elements), it casts an ambiguous eye on the thin line between revolution and terrorism. Moore's singing voice is dubbed by Renee Fleming. With Sebastian Koch, Christopher Lambert, Ryo Kase, Maria Mercedes Coroy and Tenoch Huerta.