Killing Jesus

Laura Mora's 2017 Colombian film follows Paula, an art student whose father is shot dead in the street, finding the killer herself when the police show no interest. The killer is a young man her own age; she decides to kill him, and first gets close to him. The film's courage is in refusing to make revenge easy: as Paula sees the killer's life, his neighbourhood and how he came to this work, she cannot decide. Mora wrote the story out of the killing of her own father, which gives it the weight of a document. The cast are not professionals and the streets of Medellín are real locations. The pace is slow and the ending left open. Who it's for: viewers interested in Latin American cinema and films about cycles of violence. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a clear outcome of justice, or avoiding violent and drug-related content.