Paola Andrea Pérez Nieto

After hearing a loud ‘bang’ at daybreak, a Scottish woman begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.

Based on the novels by Colombian writer Mario Mendoza and on the character of detective Frank Molina, the filming of Los Initiados took place in Bogotá. In the saga of Frank Molina, which uses the books Lady Massacre, La melancolia de los feos, El diario del fin del mundo and Akelarre, the story of an alcoholic private investigator who unmasks sinister plots within the underworld of Bogotá is told.

Eric, a ten-year-old boy, finds himself living overnight with Gabriel, his father whom he barely knows. Seeing that the man is having a hard time building a relationship with his son and staying afloat financially, Maria Isabel, the upper-class woman Gabriel works for as a carpenter, decides to take the boy under her wing.

It is about two ghosts, a mother and son, search for the boy’s missing father on a journey, both physical and spiritual, through a world ravaged by war. Only through great sacrifice will they mend the fragile bonds that bind them and perhaps find redemption.

A man in chains, a young man who dreams of being part of something, to become a militant for an armed group who must wield a cruelty in which he may not believe in. The characters, each voluntary or involuntary part of a mechanism that overcomes them, reveal their greatness or misery in the “minimum” tasks that they perform to survive. From that sometimes morbid poetry of the everyday and the irrefutable truth of the details, we see a country whose social body is sick and injured.

Ras is a graffiti artist from the city of Cali who works in construction, he works during the day and paints walls at night. One day he is caught stealing cans of paint from the construction site where he works, for which he is fired. With no money, he will look for Calvin, another popular urban artist. Both will circulate through the streets without a fixed destination, spreading their art to every corner.

The formerly revered journalist Frank Molina finds himself in hiding, with his career shattered. However, he continues to write anonymously hidden in the shadows. Frank’s sense of calm is abruptly interrupted when a pair of severed eyes and a blood-soaked note appear at his door. As the number of victims increases, Frank will need to unblock his traumatic past if he seeks to find the killer.

The story is about Manuela, the daughter of a drug trafficker who plans a tumbe against the cartel where her own father works, unleashing a war between narcos and tumbadores.

There are countless stories of Cubans reaching their dream destination of Florida as boat refugees. A lesser known route to the United States starts with a flight in a ramshackle plane to Guyana. Then the refugees travel to Colombia where they cross the jungle to arrive in Central America, from where they hope to reach the promised land of America—a hard and dangerous journey. Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltrán visits them in a refugee camp in Panama, where one of the residents gives him an idea. Many people here have filmed their journey, she says, and these videos tell their real story. These jerky, shocking videos are interspersed with Beltrán’s footage of the camp, tangibly illustrating the difference between the hectic pace of the journey and the insecure life at the reception center.

Yajaira, a young but strong Embera woman, lives with her daughter Maria in a violent Bogotá neighborhood. Haunted by dreams of the jungle, she longs to return to the village she once called home. After a tragedy strikes, they have no choice but to leave. Jhon, a charismatic young gang member, joins them on their dangerous journey to the Andágueda River, driven by motives he keeps hidden. Donde Comienza el Río is a poignant, poetic film where a perilous escape becomes a journey of healing. As the jungle reemerges through memory and dream, masks fall and reality is touched by the magic of Yajaira’s inner world.