FILM-COLOMBIA: A Priest's Passion for Justice

• by Helda Martínez (bogotÁ)
• Friday, August 21, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Gabriel is an idealistic 33-year-old priest who stands up to inept local officials as well as the heads of the armed group that holds real power in the town.

Once an irregular armed group, on the left or the right, has gained control over an area, it begins to interfere with government decisions to forward its own interests – an all-too common scenario that forms the backdrop for the film 'La pasión de Gabriel' (Gabriel's Passion), whose star, Andrés Parra, has already won a Best Actor award for his performance as Father Gabriel, at the 2009 Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico.

As believing in God as he is ingenuous about earthly matters, he believes he can bring about equality, peace and respect for decisions reached by the local community, and ignores warnings to stay out of things.

The warnings become more pointed as Gabriel insists on the need to repair a bridge linking the town with another town. But the armed group that controls the area is opposed because it knows that as soon as the bridge is built, the army will come in, and fighting will break out.

In effect, once the bridge is repaired, thanks to the efforts of the priest and the community, the army arrives, asserts its authority, asks barbed questions, issues threats and warnings, and finally leaves.

But before the army pulls out, Father Gabriel talks to the officers, explaining and arguing – as he has already done with the commanders of the irregular armed group – in an attempt to keep them from forcibly recruiting young men from the community.

The film reflects the situation in many rural villages and towns in war-torn Colombia, and in that context, 'Gabriel's real passion is the search for dignity, for people to be able to live their lives in dignity,' the film's director, Luis Alberto Restrepo, told IPS.

'Diego Vásquez, the co-screenwriter, heard about a similar situation around 10 years ago in the foothills of the Andes. Based on that, we continued to investigate, and found out that there are many local leaders, priests and others who, like Gabriel, have sought a balance of power within the communities and have been killed for it,' said Restrepo.

'Gabriel represents those victims, all of the martyrs who have placed their ideals above their own lives,' said the director, who captures the cultural essence and idiosyncrasies of the people of a small town in the midst of Colombia's nearly five-decade civil war.

Rural towns and villages where, despite the challenges posed by the presence of armed groups - such as getting caught in the crossfire - solidarity exists alongside fear.

Local people who adapt to difficult situations, who are strengthened and become more resilient, and in consequence choose bold courses of action in the absence of any state presence, besides the army.

The film portrays people whose religious beliefs have a certain elasticity, as in the case of Gabriel, whose passions include his girlfriend Silvia, played by María Cecilia Sánchez – an open secret that comes off in the film as just another fact of life, and a reflection of reality.

The priest also clashes with his superiors, who order his transfer to another town, to avoid further trouble. But he does not want to leave the community where all his passions come together, and to which he has given his all.

The end appears inevitable: his death.

Despite expectations to the contrary, the Catholic Church has not protested. 'Actually, it hasn't said anything so far,' said Restrepo.

Besides the Best Actor award taken in Guadalajara in March, the directors have been invited to the 25th edition of the Warsaw International Film Festival in October in Poland and to the 24th edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina in November.

The Colombian film that preceded Gabriel's Passion, 'Los viajes del viento' (The Wind Journeys), directed by young filmmaker Ciro Guerra, also received strong reviews, and earned a standing ovation and a prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in the 'Un Certain Regard' section for original and experimental works.

In The Wind Journeys, Guerra follows the journey of an accordion-playing minstrel from the northern coast of Colombia who travels through vastly contrasting landscapes in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains and the desert of La Guajira.

'A trip to the beginning, to the spirit, to our soul, to what unites our white, black and native race in something unique like the music that emerged there,' was the description given by the filmmaker at the premier of The Wind Journeys in May.

The two films show the progress that has been made in Colombian filmmaking, the new paths taken by local directors.

According to 'La historia del cine colombiano' (The History of Colombian Filmmaking) by Hernando Martínez Pardo, the first national films date back to 1907 - documentaries like 'La vista del bajo Magdalena en su confluencia con el Cauca', 'El cronógrafo subiendo por los Andes', 'La procesión de nuestra Señora del Rosario en Bogotá', or 'Gran corrida de toros, Martinito y Morenito en competencia'.

In the 1960s, says Martínez Pardo, films focusing on social issues took over, such as 'Raíces de piedra', 'Tiempo de sequía', 'Chircales' and 'Campesinos', among many others.

Then came a period of commercially-oriented works, many of which were comedies. Even the question of drug trafficking, hardly to be taken lightly in a country like Colombia, was poked fun at in films like 'Colombia connection', directed by Gustavo Nieto in 1977, with a cast of local stars.

Then came movies based on the war unleashed by the infamous Medellín and Cali drug cartels.

The films varied widely in quality, and in general were produced on a shoestring budget, like 'Técnicas de duelo' by director Sergio Cabrera, which took three years to make.

But the outlook began to change in 2003, when a new law on filmmaking went into effect, expanding interest in national production by earmarking funds for local works and encouraging private support of the industry by granting tax exemptions.

'It is really since then that Colombian filmmaking has had new possibilities,' said Restrepo, who remembers how things were before, when he produced 'La primera noche', which premiered in 2002 and was mainly filmed in the streets of poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Bogotá, where a family forced to flee their home by the civil war spends their first night.

That film was also 'a portrayal of how the conflict affects common people,' said Restrepo.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service