War Takes
Colombia/England, 2002, color, 78 min.
Spanish with English subtitles.
For four years, three Colombian filmmakers turned their cameras on themselves, using their personal stories to expose the daily realities of their violent, war-ravaged country. Caught in the midst of a civil war between the FARC and the Colombian military, these middle class Colombians try to negotiate a way to raise their families, and at the same time operate the independent TV station that s their passion. Amidst the daily threat of kidnapping, their black humor borders on the surreal as the film moves between conversations in the jungle with guerrillas to elegant dinner parties in Bogota. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States changed the nature of Colombia’s relationship to the world, especially America. Colombia’s decades-old civil war is now described differently, using the rhetoric of the global war on terrorism.