La controverse de Valladolid (1992)
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Directors
Cast
Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Carmet, Jean-Michel Dupuis, Pascal Elso
Sixty years after Columbus’s discovery of America, Emperor Charles V convenes an assembly to debate whether Indigenous people are human beings—a question tied to whether their enslavement should end.
The story
Sixty years after Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America, Emperor Charles V convenes an assembly under the papal legate to debate whether Indigenous people have souls and are human beings. The answer will determine whether their enslavement should end. Conducted as a trial, the controversy pits the conservative position of Canon Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda against the humanist position of Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In [year omitted], sixty years after Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America, Emperor Charles V convenes an assembly under the auspices of the papal legate to debate a fundamental question: do the indigenous Indians have souls (are they human beings)? Whether or not the enslavement they are then suffering should be ended depends on the answer. The controversy pits the conservative position of Canon Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda against the humanist position of the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas. The Church accepts that the Indians should attain the status of human beings, but, in the pope’s legate’s view, the outcome of this controversy, conducted in the form of a trial, legitimizes the enslavement of Black people, despite Las Casas’s protests.
Genres
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