Los colores de la montaña

Another great film about childhood, this one from Colombia and despite, or maybe because of, the seriousness of the subject matter, one totally devoid of sentimentality. It was director Carlos Cesar Arbelaez's first film and it showed great promise, (his handling of the children alone is impeccable), but since then he has only made one other film which is a great pity. Of course, this is also a highly political film as you might expect and Arbelaez seamlessly ties together both themes. In the central role of Manuel, Hernan MauricioOcampo is quite superb and the film is beautifully photographed by Oscar Jiminez. Needless to say it wasn't widely distributed on its initial release but it cries out to be discovered.