La Fin d'un rêve américain

A searing flash of heat explodes in the face of Juan just as he is about to shake the hand of the winner of the Californian democratic primary, Robert Francis Kennedy. Kennedy slumps to the floor of the kitchen in Los Angeles's famous Ambassador Hotel. The Mexican hotel employee kneels down and holds the head of the presidential candidate, warm blood spilling on to his hands. In his desperation the 17-year-old Juan pulls his rosary from his pocket and places it in the hands of the dying Kennedy.
With Robert F. Kennedy's death so ended a part of the American Dream. He embodied the hopes of immigrants such as Juan, the blacks in the suburban ghettos and the impoverished white communities in America's forgotten regions. He enjoyed the support of the anti-Vietnam movement and students saw him as the beacon pointing towards a more humane society. The bullet fired by the 22-year-old Jordanian immigrant Sirhan Bishara Sirhan on the 4th June extinguished these hopes and dreams.
Aged only 43 years old, Robert Kennedy could already look back on an eventful political career. Having cut his political teeth as a member of Joseph McCarthy's notorious "House Committee on un-American Activities" and as presidential campaign aid and closest advisor to his brother John F. Kennedy, standing by him throughout all political crises and private scandals, this political shooting star became the aggressive and charismatic champion of the "forgotten" Americans following the assassination on President Kennedy.
After a visit to a Chilean coal mine Senator Robert Kennedy was heard to comment : "if I worked here everyday I would be a communist too!".
This earned him few friends in America of the 60's, and even fewer friends of influence. Consequently, the speed at which the evidence was collected and the defendant sentenced following the assassination was astonishing.
Some 32 years later, the family of Sirhan Sirhan are now attempting to have the case re-opened. And since 1968, the political supporters of Robert Kennedy have continually voiced their doubts concerning the outcome of the investigations and the trial itself.
In Yoash Tatari's interviews with contemporary witnesses we learn of their shattered dreams of a better America. And of the traumatic events of that fateful night. The shots fired in Los Angeles destroyed "their" candidate and their aspirations. Doubts over whether these shots were really fired from Sirhan Sirhan's weapon are shared by many of those looking forward to joining Robert Kennedy in an evening of victory celebrations. And many of them would still like to turn back the clock of history. "I should have taken the bullet", whispers Juan Romeo softly. He owed it to the land of his dreams.