For decades, Colombia has been swallowed by stereotypes off-screen and on-screen. Therefore, Colombia’s image in international films has often been one of a war-torn country run by drug lords and guerrillas. Netflix’s series Narcos stirred up debate after romanticizing the criminals who have tainted Colombia’s past. At the same time, Colombia’s film industry is also at fault for producing films that glorify lawbreakers. 

However, these stereotypes seem to be dissipating with the release of the Colombian-inspired Disney movie Encanto, showing the rich, spiritual side of Colombia’s vast landscapes and culture. A young British filmmaker, Harry Richards, alongside producer Stan Stott-Hall and several Colombian executive producers and actors, is also trying to change this image of Colombian representation in film – at least in London – through the power of collaboration between the two countries and cultures. 

The backstory

Richards’ 10-minute coming-of-age short film, SANTI, was shot during the pandemic in London. It is a proof of concept for a 90-minute feature film that explores British and Colombian cultures. It tells a universal story that many who have moved to a new country can relate to, especially emigrating Latin Americans.

The short follows a young Colombian man, Santi, who receives a voice message from his family while grappling with cultural and linguistic barriers at a middle-class dinner party in London with his new English girlfriend. 

Since the screenings in Chelsea and Shoreditch for over 200 people in autumn 2021, Richards and Stott-Hall have been sending the short film to British and Colombian film festivals (with the help of the Colombian Executive Producer David Sierra Márquez) to attract investors towards the feature film about the same subject.

It would be shot across the UK and Colombia, in a town called Ocaña in the Norte de Santander department, where a family tragedy pulls Santi back home. The department heads will be traveling to Colombia to draw up the budget, scout locations, and cast the actors from Ocaña. 

The key elements of the film

The opening shot throws the audience straight into a dinner party scene without context.  Richards places Santi and his British girlfriend, Violet, center stage while the nondescript foreground figures provide the dialogue. Viewers, therefore, start the film lost and confused – like Santi – as they struggle to understand who the protagonists are and where they are located. 

Santi, played by British-Colombian actor Jon Gutierrez, told The Bogota Post about his connection to the role: “When I was seven years old, my family wanted to move back to Colombia. I traveled there with my grandmother before the rest of my family, but I felt like an outsider; I was mocked for not speaking properly and struggled to fit in.”

However, he quickly adapted, learned Spanish fluently, and fell in love with his country of origin. Unfortunately, his family decided not to move and returned to London. “I finally felt Colombian while England was an alien world where I could neither speak nor write the language fluently.” 

The filmmaking is objective and observational, with only 15 shots in the entire short. The long shots give the viewers time to reflect on their own experiences as they connect with the story. Richards expressed that he scrutinized every detail as a director to think: What’s the most important feeling to convey in each scene without always cutting to people’s reactions? Where should the characters be placed in relation to the camera? 

In 2018, Richards spent six months in Colombia doing an internship at El Tiempo, Colombia’s biggest newspaper. The immersion in a foreign culture was both isolating and challenging for him, yet incredibly rewarding. “I initially sat with colleagues over empanadas and cervezas, always fifteen seconds behind every joke. That’s the kind of experience we wanted to capture.”

Avoiding falling into the same old stereotypes 

The script was shared with Colombian executive producers and script readers, along with a British editor and script consultant, to ensure that the narrative offered an accurate representation of both cultures – a practice that will be repeated for the feature film. 

Many of the department heads have a strong connection to Colombia and a desire to improve Colombian representation on screen. For example, the First Assistant Director, Claire Wolf, of British-Colombian background, understands the complicated nature of Colombia’s history and brings a unique perspective to the project. 

One of the Executive Producers, Marvin Vivas, who moved to the UK before the pandemic, collaborated with Harry on the script to provide insights into the strange British customs he came across. He stated: “This film is important as it normalizes that sensation of feeling out of place; something that everyone who has lived abroad can identify with.”

Due to the ongoing on-screen representations of drug-related violence, Richards stressed that all of the cast and crew felt determined to share the everyday experience of a modern Colombian. He added: “there are more and more films following this style in general – such as the Academy Award-winning Mexican film, Roma – and we wanted to be part of that shift.”

Plus, at the heart of the film is the theme of family. “With cultural differences aside, the one thing that unites cultures around the world is that sense of belonging,” stated Richards. “In the short, you hear the voices of Santi’s family through a Whatsapp voice message. It reminds him of his identity that will never disappear, even in a foreign place that he doesn’t yet understand.”

Down to the last detail, collaboration between the two countries was essential. On shoot day, the crew panicked, realizing that they didn’t have a photo for Santi’s mother’s Whatsapp picture. Location Manager, Sophie McDonald, whose boyfriend is Colombian, suggested that Richards follow a typical Colombian mother’s trend by using an inspirational quote – an alteration that made its way into the short film. 

These specific cultural references are rarely seen on-screen, but this script seeks to deviate from the usual narrative assigned to Colombians. Gutierrez added: “This storyline gives Latin Americans an opportunity to see themselves on-screen in a different light, exposing vulnerabilities that come with different life milestones and emphasizing that their personal, seemingly trivial, stories are meaningful.”

Since March 2020, periods of isolation, being stuck at home, or being far away from our families have made life on both sides of the Atlantic uncertain. Hence, as Richards puts it, “the future, full-length film, SANTI, will offer a combination of escapism by taking people on a journey to Colombia alongside an intimate reflection of day-to-day life, encouraging people to look inwards, empathize with others, and embrace people’s differences.”
SANTI (the short film) will be available online at the end of its festival run next year. This will be announced here (@santithefilm).

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The new film by acclaimed director Ken Loach Sorry We Missed You has just hit national theatres. It serves as a companion piece to his previous films  I, Daniel Blake. Both movies deal with the problems and struggles working class people in the UK have to endure in this modern society. The realistic approach boosts the story above the average social drama you can find in similar movies. 

The film cast consists of non-actors or lesser-known actors, led by an amazing performance from Kirs Hitchen. Hitchen portrays a father who not only has to manage to provide for his family but must also deal with his rebel young son and the financial problems surrounding his household. 

Ken Loach is known for his naturalistic approach to filmmaking, using as little film equipment as possible, and placing real people in front of the camera. This approach (quite common in the Colombian filmmaking landscape) allows the film to detach itself from artificiality. It makes everything more believable, more grounded. As a result, the film can be gut-wrenching at points — the struggles this family goes through can hit too close to home. 

Colombian cinema: Read all our reviews.

In Sorry We Missed You, we find the usual problems and dilemmas faced by working-class, low-income families. And, in this case, the decisions and the pressures they have to endure while dealing with marital problems. 

The director masterfully manages to make us empathise with our main protagonist. We just want him to get a break from all the bad things that happen throughout the film, to overcome the incessant obstacles that life throws at him. We are able to understand where he’s coming from and what’s keeping him away from obtaining what he desires. 

There are a couple of moments in the film that can leave the viewer exhausted, desolated, speechless. These are moments where we can see the true self of our characters, where they speak up their mind and we are confronted with the harsh reality the film wants us to be aware of. The film’s sincerity and brutality towards its subjects leave us feeling helpless. But that is also the point of it all, the main goal of Ken Loach’s filmography as well.

The movie is quite simple, but in its simplicity the film excels. The approach that Loach used to film this story not only can be called natural but also minimalistic. And that’s the secret to the film’s success, that’s why it is worth it. It does more with less and says a lot with a few details. This movie departs from narrative conventions: Here we do not have heroes or happy endings, only real life. 

Rate: 3.5/5

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Emergency fund for nation’s audiovisual and film industry

Just before public activity in Bogotá started to grind to a halt, Cartagena was in the midst of hosting the FICCI (Festival Internacional de Cartagena de Indias), the national film event of the year. By the morning of its third day, however, festival organisers were forced to call off the rest of the multi-day event as the country prepared for a full-scale national quarantine. 

This was disappointing for all in the film industry, whether or not they were in attendance. The significance of the festival’s cancellation indicated an obligatory pause on every forthcoming shoot in the country. Set decorators, production assistants, sound mixers, casting directors, and location scouts – all essential elements to most large-scale film and television productions – were set to lose their livelihood for the duration of the national emergency. 

Project-based work is precarious in nature, relying on the stability of the market to provide consistent employment for its workforce. Like much of Colombia’s informal economy, contract workers lost out on future compensation for their services when the country shut down.

The Colombian Academy of Cinematic Arts and Sciences, ACACC, announced earlier this month that they, in collaboration with Netflix, would be making a relief fund of $500,000 available to eligible workers in the Colombian audiovisual industry. For Netflix, the fund in Colombia is part of a much larger global commitment to support creative communities all over the world with USD$150 million of emergency relief funding. 

“We hope that by joining forces, we’ll be able to help them [technical workers] during this difficult time,” said Consuelo Luzardo, ACACC president. “We welcome Netflix’s commitment to this fund and we hope that other members of the industry will be able to come together and contribute.”

The ACACC will be managing the relief fund, awarding one-time payments of COP$1.2 million per grantee. Workers within 100 different roles (sound mixers, production assistants, set designers, etc)  who had an active or pending contract during the relevant time period, are invited to apply. 

City’s beloved indie theatre in dire straits

Meanwhile in Bogotá’s picturesque La Merced neighbourhood, six-year-old indie house theatre Cine Tonalá is doing everything in its power to survive the pandemic. 

Less than a month into the national quarantine, the theatre announced itself “about to close” if no radical measures were taken. The theatre’s social media accounts have communicated a general sense of uneasiness since the very beginning of the quarantine. Tonalá started promoting watch-from-home streaming options through the platform Mowies with the hashtags #apoyemosatonalá #cinetonaláresiste.

The multi-purpose venue’s full-service restaurant, which is of course also shut down for in-house service, has continued operating for delivery in order to serve customers and make some sales. But like many small businesses, it could be a struggle to stay open.

“It’s highly likely that we won’t see each other again in the house in La Merced where we always welcomed you with open arms and that we won’t be able to keep being a special space to host and promote Colombian film,” said Cine Tonalá’s last official press communication in a bid to raise awareness around the theatre’s imminent closure.

Cine Tonalá hopes that its status as a major supporter of Colombian film will help rally financial and institutional support. In just six years in Bogotá, it has hosted 4,000 functions dedicated exclusively to showing and promoting Colombian film. 

Click here to lend your support.

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In La Sinfónica de los Andes, legendary anthropologist and filmmaker Marta Rodríguez goes into northern Cauca to examine the disastrous consequences of war on a small Nasa community grieving the loss of numerous children who have fallen victim of the conflict. They never quite understood it but, tragically, were nonetheless part of it from birth. 

There is no grandiloquence in this film, it doesn’t pretend to be something bigger than it is. That’s a recognizable feature of Rodríguez’ filmography which goes way back to the 60s when she and her partner Jorge Silva started to pave the way for documentary filmmaking in Colombia with their debut film Chircales.

For over forty years she has managed to give a voice to hopeless and marginalised communities. She strives to give them the recognition they deserve but can’t find anywhere else.

The film is direct and doesn’t wander around. The crudeness that comes with the images the film presents and the chronicles of its characters are proof of it; shocking imagery that some viewers might find disturbing or heartbreaking, interviews about the passing of children that only confirms the horrors of war.

This documentary relies strongly on the spoken word, members of the Nasa community telling their heartbreaking stories about how, unexpectedly, little children and young members of their community were killed by the instruments of war that would constantly wake them up in the middle of the night, or take them off-guard while going to school. 

The titular music orchestra works both as an artifice that serves as the documentary’s soundtrack, but it also works a tool for healing, to honor these children and their families. With the help of the orchestra, these families hope to overcome what’s happened to them, all while waiting for proper reparations and a long overdue apology from the government and the armed groups for causing them so much pain.

Colombian cinema: Read all our reviews.

The film intertwines these touching testimonies with archival footage of many important moments in the history of the Colombian conflict, such as the demobilisation of the M19 guerrilla group or the 2016 peace agreement with FARC. But the most striking footage are some intimate clips depicting the M19 members training, discussing their demobilisation and showing them in the middle of a combat with the Colombian army.   

As many films about the conflict, La Sinfónica de los Andes is an invitation to never forget and to remember all those lives that have been lost. The film emphasises the deep and long lasting effects violence has had on this particular indigenous community.

It’s quite admirable how Marta Rodríguez allows these people to be heard, to express their opinions and grief. Especially at a time when the official institutions that should be doing that aren’t.

3.5/5 stars

La sinfónica de los Andes opens in Colombian theatres today.

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5/5 stars

Knives Out gathers a cast of familiar faces including Chris Evans and Daniel Craig (Captain America and James Bond, respectively), as well as Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon and newcomers Katherine Langford and Jaden Martell.

The story revolves around the mysterious death of Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plumber), a highly-successful crime writer and patriarch of the Thrombey family. A few days after Harlan’s passing, private detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) comes into investigate the Thrombey family and identify if there is foul play involved, which he suspects.

The nature of the film means it’s hard to talk about it without giving away any spoilers. But from the very beginning Rian Johnson hooks you in with a relentless pace. 

Despite the ensemble of Hollywood heavy-hitters, the role of the protagonist in this story – or at least a character the audience can root for and identify with – is played by Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera, the nurse who took care of Harlan and was also his confidante. Armas’ captivating performance manages to support the film and turns it into a cohesive tale we can follow.

To solve the mystery, Johnson uses a variety of cinematic elements that are often found in these type of murder-mystery movies: different point of views, missing pieces of overheard conversations, false allies, false leads or mistakes that will risk the life of the protagonist.

But the director doesn’t underestimate the audience either, he’s not afraid of explaining everything and then leaving some room for the audience to connect the dots. That, however, often leads viewers to the wrong conclusions since the screenplay keeps at every twisting at every turn – but all without ever becoming illogical.

Read all our Colombian film coverage

The overriding purpose of Knives Out is to tell an entertaining mystery story, but that doesn’t mean some deeper themes aren’t lightly touched on, like the current migration crisis in the United States, class divides and the lack of real emotional connections in modern families who prioritise material possessions over honest relationships.

Knives Out is, for my money, one of the best movies of the year, taking you on an exciting ride from the initial logos to the end credits. Rian Johnson manages to deliver an excellent crime mystery tale, supported by some of the most in-demand A-listers of the moment. This is a movie that keeps you at the edge of your seat, inviting you to form your own theories and try to solve the mystery by yourself, using the many hints delivered throughout the runtime. 

Knives Out opens in Colombian theatres today.

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4/5 stars

Miss Meta is a documentary short film directed by Jesús Arley López that tells the story of Jairo Briceño, a 63-year-old drag queen from Villavicencio who started cross-dressing and performing in the 1970s.

It’s a short but substantial piece of filmmaking that shows the protagonist’s transformation into his drag persona, a glamorous Marylin Monroe-like character, while he recounts the highs and lows of his life.

He reminisces about when he first moved to Bogotá to become a fabulous drag performer and beauty pageant contestant during a period when homosexuality was illegal and harshly penalised.

At times visibly moved by his memories, other times seemingly emotionless when retelling some of the darkest episodes of his life, like the time he was sexually abused or when he lost most of his friends to AIDS, Briceño pours his heart out with the honesty of someone who has nothing left to lose.

His obsession with beauty hasn’t decreased the slightest bit now that he approaches old age. The inevitability of that makes him tear up in front of the camera as he admits that losing his youth feels like the worst tragedy.

Related: Reviews on many more Colombian movies

Heartwarming, heartbreaking and, in the end, uplifting, Miss Meta is a well-rounded portrait of a tremendously interesting person. However, the film raises many questions that are left unanswered – making the viewer wish the story would have gone further and deeper.

Colombia needs an increased and improved representation of queer people in its media. For way too long, LGBT characters only appeared in TV and film to be the subject of mockery.

That’s definitely not the case here. The sensitivity with which López’s camera follows Briceño strutting down the sidewalk as if it were a fashion runway, at the end of Miss Meta, feels like a well-deserved tribute to his craft and tenacity. We need more of that.

Miss Meta doesn’t have a theatrical release date yet, but the director hopes to bring it to the public soon.

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Woody Allen is an exceptional filmmaker, who has 40 films under his belt over the past 50 years. It won’t come as a surprise to most readers that during that time, Allen has become a master storyteller. His films engage audiences, largely thanks to his witty dialogue and the well-structured characters that deliver it. 

Once again, the director gathers a marvellous cast and together they ignite that essential spark commonly found in Woody Allen stories.  Led by young talents Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning, A Rainy Day in New York takes us through the adventures and misadventures of this deeply-in-love couple during in a weekend in New York City.

Related: Film review – Monos

Chalamet plays Gatsby, a scion of a wealthy NYC family. He wants to detach from the lifestyle that comes with said social status. Gatsby, unlike his brother, has no foreseeable goal in life, he doesn’t have a plan, he just goes with it.

Fanning plays Ashleigh, a wannabe reporter who works for the college paper and sees an opportunity to start making a name for herself professionally in her next task, interviewing independent filmmaker Roland Pollard (played by Liev Schreiber). Chalamet and Fanning are joined by other talented and well-known faces such as Jude Law, Selena Gomez, Diego Luna and Rebecca Hall.

As mentioned earlier, Allen is an experienced director who effortlessly uses everyday events to create compelling narratives. Common tropes found in Allen’s films are also present in this latest work: love affairs, searching for the meaning of life, an artist expressing his world view and family dynamics.

We cannot forget the other main character in this movie, New York City itself, beautifully photographed by the Italian master Vittorio Storaro. The city, as well as the weather, play a key role in the development of the story. We are placed in different NYC landmarks such as Central Park or the Met, but the movie also provides us a look at some of the most exclusive places like the Carlyle Hotel or the duplex apartment of important movie stars. The characters mix in with these locations, and seem to inherently belong, as this connection between character and location fills the world of this movie with life. It makes it more real and palpable.

Even after 50 years, Woody Allen is still able to create a real connection between his films and the audience. We can identify with the characters and with the many things that happen to them. This is one of the reasons why Allen remains relevant, even after the recent controversies. He understands people, what they go through, what they dream of, why they suffer – universal concerns that, even as the years go by, remain the same.

A Rainy Day in New York, while not Allen’s finest movie, is populated with a top-notch cast that uses a solid script to keep us engaged, laugh and, most importantly, makes us recall the many missteps and successes we have had in our own love lives.

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The Bogotá International Film Festival (BIFF) is set to bring some top international films to the capital again this October. BIFF has built a reputation for interesting, quirky, and above all, excellent cinema. Last year, there were 60 different films showing at cinemas throughout the city, and we can expect even more for their fifth birthday.

Related: Everything about Colombian cinema

This year, Grâce à Dieu / Grace of God, the winner of the Jury Grand Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, is perhaps a daring choice. But François Ozon’s film, which tackles the sexual abuse of children by a Catholic priest in Lyon, has been met with critical acclaim and will no doubt get people talking.

The academic program, BIFF BANG offers a chance for young people to showcase their works. BIFF also partners with other organisations, such as the chamber of commerce, Universidad Javeriana, and the heritage film foundation (Fundación Patrimonio Fílmico Colombiano) to bring the best cinema from around the world to the capital.

Dates: October 10-16
Venues: Cinemas city-wide
More info: BIFF

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Following well-known narrative tropes, Los fierros focuses on motorcycle racer Federico’s life after jail. We see his desire to have a normal life as the realities of his past come back to haunt him. He returns to his dysfunctional family, who have dramas of their own, and tries to reconnect with his loving mother, his disapproving stepfather, and his adoring younger brother. 

It isn’t long before Federico goes back to making the terrible decisions that initially landed him in trouble – in part, due to an old debt that his brother has to a local gangster. Before he knows it, he’s racing motorcycles again, this time to protect the family that he loves.

The plot follows so many familiar themes that at times it’s easy to guess what’s going to happen. The story focuses on a trite tale of redemption gone wrong, and even its surprise ending does little to save the film from the boredom that plagues the previous 80 minutes. 

The accents of the characters are one of the few clues as to where the story is set, although it’s obvious that it takes place in Colombia. The characters always refer to it as “El pueblo” but there’s never a clear revelation of where and when this situation is taking place. Was the intention to make the story more universal? If so, it backfired. 

There are so many generalities, at so many levels, that it’s up to the viewer to make assumptions about the back story or motivations of most of the characters. The funny thing is, most of these assumptions are correct. The filmmakers rely heavily on the public’s ability to recognise these clichés in order to understand why the characters behave the way they do.

Related: Colombian film reviews

The weight of the movie is carried by Alejandro Buitrago, whose honest and emotional portrayal of Federico, is the highlight of the movie. His experience in similar productions helps him understand the character on a different level and he brings a characterisation that is both fun and refreshing to watch.

But not even his best efforts can save the movie from incredibly awkward moments, especially when it comes to the plotline surrounding his love interest. It’s so undercooked that at moments, it feels as if even the actors themselves are calling into question the plot’s plausibility.

The film shares a lot of similarities with some current TV productions, which might be because the same production companies are involved in making the movie. Los fierros fails to become the compelling and complex drama it wants to be, though maybe this particular plot with these particular characters would have done better as a Netflix show. With a little more time, the characters may have felt more mature and the plot could have developed at a more reasonable pace. Unfortunately, that was not the case, and Los fierros failed to deliver by any measure.

Los fierros opens in Colombian theatres today

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Lasting a week, the festival event showcases 60 films in more than 45 cinemas around Bogotá, Soacha, Cartagena, Medellin, Barranquilla and Pereira. Overall there will be over 200 film showings. In addition, there will be a variety of workshops, named ‘talks that unite,’ in which 50 invitees, both Colombian and international, will speak about the promotion of human rights. Topics including race, sexual diversity, gender equality and female empowerment will be discussed, amongst others.

Kick-starting the festival is Los silencios by Brazilian director Beatriz Seigner, telling the story of a mother (Marleyda Soto, winner of the Cámara de Oro prize 2015) who finds herself desperately trying to deal with the disappearance of her daughter and husband whilst on an island on the border of Colombia, Peru and Brazil. This film has been shown at a number of important events including the Cannes film festival.

Related: The best Colombian films

Diana Arias, director of the festival, said that “Cinema unites us because it is a powerful tool which connects us to stories, communities and its people. We want to promote the protection of human rights through audiovisual means, showcasing love as well as the battles individuals and communities around the world face in hopes of building a better world for everyone.”

The inauguration is free to attend and will take place at the main auditorium at Universidad Externado de Colombia (Calle 12 #1-17 Este, Bogotá) at 6pm.

For more information visit Cine por los derechos humanos.

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