In the morning of the 11th September 1973 the often expected putsch of General Pinochet against the elected president Salvador Allende took place. Allende barricades himself with some followers in the president’s palace. He refuses to resign in the ultimatum, the putchists had set and speaks to the inhabitants of Chile by radio a last time. After that he orders his followers to surrender. While the military assaults the palace he shoots himself.
The director Michael Trabitzsch visited the surviving companions of Allende who helped to defend the Moneda this day.
From the narratives of these companions and some impressing, in parts unpublished film-materials a pasional and touching portrait of Salvador Allende arose which is beyond all transfigurations and political and receipts: A man of revolt, who’s overwhelming love of life includes the central values of liberty and dignity and who is poised to pay with his life for these. “Savador died, that’s true”, says his old company Carlos Joquera. “But it is also true, that he survived more than thirty years.”