By Bob Tourtellotte

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) – When Ellen Perry began making her documentary “The Fall of Fujimori,” she said, she never thought her tale of a government wielding sweeping police powers in the name of democracy would become a story with eerie parallels to the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Iron-fisted Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, before fleeing to Japan amid allegations of murder and corruption.

He was democratically elected in 1990, but used dictatorial powers throughout his reign while proclaiming that his actions were done in the name of democracy to defeat a brutal insurgency.

During an unprecedented 16 hours of interviews with Perry, Fujimori, whose extradition from Japan is being sought by the Peruvian government, declares he will run for president again in 2006. Perry says the paradox for Peru and the world is that he may have a chance of winning.

In an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where the “The Fall of Fujimori” had its premiere, she said Fujimori enjoys wide support among Peru’s large groups of rural voters.

Even while death squads roamed Peru, his government built schools, provided food and clothes to the poor, tamed inflation of more than 7,600 percent in 1990 and ended guerrilla warfare and terrorism waged by the Shining Path and other groups.

“On paper, he was extremely successful,” Perry told Reuters. “The questions lie in how he did it. (His methods) were draconian. They were unconstitutional. They were undemocratic, but do the benefits outweigh the consequences?”

People worldwide are asking those same questions as U.S. and British troops face charges of human rights abuses such as those that took place at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

Perry said as President Bush fights a worldwide war on terrorism, he and others ought to study Fujimori’s rise and fall and learn lessons from it.

“Clearly, as the world wages its war on these terrorist groups — wherever they may be — here is a man, here is a nation, that has already come full circle,” she said.

JUST THE FACTS

Perry, a resident of San Francisco, spent four years making “The Fall of Fujimori.” It is only her second nonfiction film and she does not claim to be a journalist.

But in stark contrast to recent, successful documentaries like the anti-Bush “Fahrenheit 9/11″ and the anti-fast food chronicle “Super Size Me” that clearly have a position, Perry takes a far more traditional approach in “Fall of Fujimori.”

She gives the facts and lets the audience decide. “It was my job to tell the story,” she said.

Perry said she has received criticism for being both too hard on Fujimori and too soft. During sold-out screenings this week, some audience members groaned as they saw her allow Fujimori to defend himself without injecting her point of view.

Perry won the interview with the deposed ruler by befriending a wide array of people from clergy to Fujimori’s staff and, finally, his daughter Keiko, who became Peru’s first lady when Fujimori’s wife ran for president against him.

“The Fall of Fujimori” tells not just of abuse of power and government corruption, but also a story of one family torn apart. The Fujimoris are divorced. Keiko and her estranged mother live in Peru, while the Fujimoris’ other children attend school in the United States, Perry said.

“This is a story of Shakespearean proportion. That is what attracted me,” Perry said. “Then, after 9/11, I realized this was an important story for the world.”