The Colors of the Mountain

Manuel is nine and lives in a mountainous part of Colombia. His only concern is football; his father buys him a new ball for his birthday. One day the ball rolls into a field, and the field is mined. The boys try to find a way to get it back. At the same time the village is caught between right-wing paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas; families are pushed to take sides, teachers leave, and neighbours go in the night. Carlos César Arbeláez tells the war as far as children can see it. The narrative explains no side; armed men arrive, writing appears on walls, people leave, and Manuel does not know what any of it means. The mined field is the direct equivalent of that uncertainty. The child actors are not professionals and were cast from the region. The film won the new directors award at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Who it's for: Viewers who like Latin American cinema, war films told from a child's view, and realist drama. Who it's not for: The outcome offers no hope and the narrative is slow. Some events pass unexplained for a viewer without the political background.