Review by interlingua_usa

At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this movie. I like movies about political issues, but I don't like simple propaganda or sentimental movies. This sounded like it might be both. But in the best tradition of Italian Neo-realism, this is a movie about the lives of ordinary people but, because they live in the remote mountains of Colombia in the 1990s, their lives are anything but ordinary. Politically, they are caught in the middle of a struggle between guerrillas and the military. On a more personal level, many of the characters are torn between a Catholic devotion and customs that are violent, sensual, and corrupt.

The acting is great, the photography beautiful. The movie, naturally, treats a number of themes that have to be considered in any movie set in this place and time, but does so in gripping ways.

Highly recommended. At the Chicago Latino Film Festival, we also had the good fortune to meet the leading actor.