The Immortal
Background
After decades of dictatorship and 50,000 deaths, in 1979 the Sandinista National Liberation Front –FSLN- seized power after a popular uprising that overthrew Anastasio Somoza Jr. Six months later, Somoza’s former guard took up positions on the border with Honduras and Costa Rica, from where they launched a new war against the Sandinista Front. The so-called Contras were supported by US funding and by sectors of the population who disagreed with the FSLN’s policies. The opposite side, the so-called Compas, consisted of the Sandinista army, along with sectors of the population that supported the revolutionary government.
Nicaragua has lived in a constant state of warfare, from the time when the Presidency was held by US citizen William Walker -- in 1856 -- until 1989, when the FSLN was defeated in an election, and when a coalition of parties who had historically opposed the Front came to power.
The assault on Waslala that unleashed the events in this film took place during this final stage of the war, from 1980 to 1990.