Colombians are often crowned as the happiest people on the planet, and are famous for their hospitality, joy for life and bubbly energy. I have several close Colombian friends and I agree with these sentiments. They are joyful and magnetic people.
Colombia is a country made famous by a range of vastly different things, such as coffee production, drug lords, the non-lying hips of Shakira and the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Battered by a long-standing internal violent conflict, it is an amazingly friendly country of breathtaking landscapes and interesting culture.
But first, as always. Food.
La tarde colombiana – the Colombian afternoon
I have a wonderful Colombian friend in Sydney, TAV. She is super smart, has an infectious smile and a beautiful family. When we invited her to curate the Colombian Afternoon, she enthusiastically jumped into the task, designed the menu, prepared a large quantity of sensational food, built a playlist of Colombian music and, on the day, ran our activities with efficiency, humour and warm energy. The Colombian afternoon was an outstanding success with amazing, rich flavours and a crowd of 26 people combining seasoned Virtual Nomads and several newbies. It was a wonderfully diverse group of people of different origins and a lot of kids running around. Apart from the several seasoned nomads (fellow Europeans KB and K+ with their families, DK and AK with their family, and my partner JK and our combined children L (18), FK (15), A (11) accompanied by NA (18). We also welcomed to the tribe my wonderful American friend AR, my lovely old friend NE with her incredibly cute very young son and my beautiful friend LW, a human rights warrior. And then of course our in-house Colombian TAV and her beautiful family.
When I met with TAV to plan the menu, she suggested that we order some Colombian delicatessen online. As TAV already decided to make quite a few of the planned dishes, I offered to carry out the ordering. I used the online option of Fruta Foods – which was not only incredibly efficient, but also had outstanding customer service and high quality products. I could not praise this little business more. What was on my list were cheese arepas, green plantains, yellow potatoes, cassava croquettes, and other Colombian delicia. I still had no idea how to prepare them, but lucky as we were, TAV took over on the day to make sure that the food would be perfect. And it was!
The essential part of the Colombian kitchen is Arepas and Empanadas. TAV prepared meat and cheese empanadas with a delicious sauce. Empanadas are said to be originally from Galicia in Spain and brought to Latin America during Spanish colonisation. ‘Empanar’ in fact means to “wrap in bread or dough”. Colombians, like other Latin Americans, have adapted the recipe and localised it according to available resources. In Colombia (like in Venezuela) empanadas are prepared with corn flour, and usually contain meat, chicken or cheese filling. TAV is incredibly skilled with her cooking, and the present Virtual Nomads are completely gobsmacked with how rich and delicious food can be. I have bought some Arepas con queso from Fruta Foods. Arepas are round, flat cake-like patties made of white or yellow corn. The cheese filled arepa is a very popular choice and is delicious – but not as delicious as the homemade empanadas TAV brings.
In my Colombia-box, there are Cassava Croquettes that are made of yuca. TAV placed them in the air fryer and made sure that they were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. For TAV it is important that we get to taste different traditional foods all around Colombia – yuca is very typical of coastal, Amazonian and Andean regions, being used instead of potatoes or rice. Cassava croquettes are similar to French fries made of potato. Yuca is native to South America and was first cultivated by Amazonian rainforest Indigenous peoples. It is a good starch to grow in challenging climates (such as arid environments and tropics). Yuca has a musical Latin name, Manihot Esculenta and it is an energy-rich food. Yuca should never be eaten raw but properly prepared. The Virtual Nomads turn out to be big fans of yuca and the bowl is empty in record time.
As part of the goody box, we also have flat green plantains and preparing them is a bit of an art. Just like yuca, they are supposed to be crunchy on top but soft on the inside and again it is TAV that supervises the preparation. In Colombia, green plantains are served in different forms and on our Colombian Night, TAV prepared them as patacones (tostones) which are often served as appetizers with the hogao sauce (that my old friend NE brings). Hogao sauce is a tomato-onion sauce used to accompany many dishes in Colombian cuisine, particularly in the Andean region. It is said to be a dish of mixed origin – Indigenous, Spanish and African. It is often associated with the Antioquia region (where Medellin is situated). The patacones and hogao sauce is a fantastic combination.
Fellow Europeans KB and K+ (with their families) prepared one rice-based dish each. KB and family brought arroz con coco – rice with coconut. It is a traditional dish of the Caribbean coast (where there is easy access to coconuts) and has strong roots in Afro-Colombian heritage. It is prepared with rice, coconut, salt and sugar, and raisins that give it a sweet taste. K+ (and family) brought arroz con pollo – rice with chicken. (L proofreader note: very convenient names!) Arroz con pollo is not unique to Colombia but a very typical dish in the region with local variations. It is still a very constant feature of the Colombian kitchen and often home-made regular family food. Both rice dishes are delicious and taste very authentic.
AK brought carne desmechada which is a traditional Colombian dish made of shredded beef, cooked until it becomes tender enough to be pulled apart into thin strands. It is typically served with (or on) arepas, patacones (the green plantains) or rice and beans (which TAV also brings). Carne desmechada is a dish that is eaten across Colombia, especially common on the Caribbean coastal region mostly mixed with arepas, and in the Andean region often accompanied by rice or yellow potatoes. We decide to bring yellow potatoes (in my goodie bag from Fruta Foods), called Papa Criolla, typical of the Andean region – and they do not need peeling. They are small and round with very thin skin, and quite soft and creamy in their taste.
During dessert time, we were beyond spoiled. My beautiful American friend and first time-Virtual Nomad AR has prepared Arroz con leche – a very yummy, very traditional Colombian dessert made of rice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and milk (L proofread note: I love arroz con leche, milk with rice, so much you might hear me yell it out from the rooftops). It is strongly embedded in Colombian culture and TAV explains that for many it is the taste of their childhood. There is even a nursery rhyme in Colombia that refers to it. AR has done a stellar job and Virtual Nomads are thrilled with the result. TAV also served dulce de leche – we really wanted to find the Colombian version that is arequipe but could not find an authentic one so opted for the thicker version of this sweet treat. Dulce de leche (as witnessed in our Argentinian stop) is beloved in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, whereas arequipe is the Colombian and Venezuelan version. The consistency of arequipe is usually slightly lighter than dulce de leche but that varies. We eat arequipe in the form of obleas, thin crispy wafers with arequipe on top.
For drinks, we had the adult Colombian section and the youngsters section. TAV’s lovely husband took the bartender role and offered two types of Aguardiente. Aguardiente, consumed in different parts of the Iberoamerican world, comes from ‘agua’ meaning ‘water’ and ‘ardiente’ which means ‘burning’, so… burning water! It is usually high in alcohol, ranging from 29% to 60% depending on the brand, region, production methods, etc. In Colombia, it is distilled from sugarcane with added anis to give flavour. The 32 departments in Colombia each produce their own aguardiente, but in February 2025, the Colombian Constitutional Court declared the departmental aguardiente monopolies unconstitutional, therefore producers from different regions can now make their products available nationwide. TAV and family offered the famous Aguardiente from Antioquia (Andean region where Medellin is situated) as well as Apple Aguardiente from Manzanares (Department of Caldas). The non-alcoholic option is Pupa de Fruta– preparation is entrusted to L and NA. Pupa de fruta is blended fruit that can be used for juice. Our choice (again from Fruta Foods) is made of lulo, a native Colombian fruit with a citrusy flavour. The juice tastes amazing.
The second most biodiverse country in the world
After Brazil, Colombia is the second most biodiverse country – with the highest bird diversity in the world.
In ancient times, several people inhabited the lands of now-modern Colombia, including the Quimbaya people, famous for their goldwork and ceramics, the very advanced Muisca and the war waging Muzo people. Then, as in everywhere in Latin America, the Spanish came and conquered the continent. Colombia was first referred to as New Granada as part of the Spanish Empire. The Spanish brought slaves from Africa to work on the land, and a few conquistadors even thought that the musical El Dorado was placed somewhere in the Colombian rainforest.
In 1819, Colombia gained independence as part of Gran Colombia (consisting of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama) after the Independence movement (1810-1819) led by the legendary Simón Bolívar. In 1831, the Gran Colombia dissolved and Colombia became independent, finally abolishing slavery in 1851. Independence came with a toll in the form of civil wars, including the Thousand Days’ War (1899-1902). In 1948, politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was murdered, which pushed Colombia into a very gruesome, politically motivated violent period lasting ten years known as La Violencia. Despite attempts to stop violence, the country spiralled deeper into armed conflict with guerrilla groups (FARC, ELM), drug carters and paramilitaries. In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar’s carter-dominated Medellin was the most violent and dangerous city in the world with unprecedented levels of death and terror. A historic peace treaty was signed with FARC in 2016, but the challenges are far from over.
FOUR COLOMBIAN BOOKS
As I have mentioned, I am blessed with several Colombian friends scattered around the globe, including TAV, whether roaming around different parts of mother earth or living in their motherland. I decided to turn to them for book and film recommendations and of course, as Colombians, they are up to the task. Four wonderful Colombian friends took the task: TAV. my dear old friend and children’s book author storyteller DC (who lives in Canada), my other old gorgeous friend CV who lives in Colombia, does immensely important work around social dialogue and cultural heritage, and SJR who I met years ago and we ended up working together years later. They are all amazing people and therefore I decide to read and watch all that they have recommended.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
This is one of the most famous – and one the very best books ever written – and constantly in the top 10 of any kind of best of the very best, bestest, better than best lists. I have read it in the past, and I have read it in the original language (ahem) so I will give this space to my daughter L (18) who reads it for the first time. Even if one of L’s native languages is Spanish, the original version could result complicated for her so she has chosen to read the translation. Her review of the book will appear here once she has read it [L note: just finished reading the book for China so will see to this asap!!].
My storyteller friend DC who lives in Canada with her beautiful family, recommended that I read something from William Ospina who writes about the conquest of Amazonia, the Americas and Colombia. I choose to read Ursúa, the first book of a trilogy DC mentions. It is a beautifully written book in which every page is almost like poetry. The language is truly masterful with amazingly beautiful descriptions of terrible and cruel things. Again, I have the advantage of being able to read in the original language. The book is about Pedro de Ursúa, a real-life Spanish conquistador from Navarra who sailed to the Americas in the 1500s. Pedro is first a loyal follower of the Spanish order but becomes corrupted by greed for gold and power, and ends up being a ferocious killer. The historic accuracy is astonishing, and it shows that William has done his research. There are so many names and places, and overlapping storylines that I do have to google some of it to understand who is who. It is a compelling read and first instalment in a trilogy that includes El país de la canela (hailed as the best of the trilogy) and La serpiente sin ojos.
Another Colombian friend, SJR, recommends Delirio (Delirium, 2004) by Laura Restrepo that he says his wife loved. Laura Restrepo is a renowned Colombian author and journalist who has been politically active. She was forced into exile in Mexico and Spain due to the death threats she received in the 1980s for her activism. Delirio is probably her most known book and it won her the prestigious Alfaguara de Novela award. Dragging at times, and confusing in places, it is a story narrated by several different people with the voice of the narrator changing to the point that it requires persistence from the reader to understand who is talking. It is a story of a young unstable wife (Agustina) of a penniless university professor and her sudden slip into insanity. Agustina goes missing for four days and her husband is trying to put things together to know what happened to his young wife. Other characters play significant roles in the story, from aunts and brothers to ex partners. Some parts of the story are interesting, especially when it comes to the 1980s Colombia that the book depicts. but other parts were less interesting (Agustina as a character was quite infuriating). It is an interesting, confusing and uneven book that speeds up and becomes quite thrilling towards the end.
My dear friend CV, who does very important work in Colombia, recommends reading anything from Alfredo Molano, a sociologist who dedicated his life to documenting the stories of displaced people, and victims of the long and grueling internal conflict in Colombia. I decided to read Desterrados (2001), which is his internationally most famous work. Written while in exile in Barcelona, it contains eight real life stories of people affected by the conflict. The stories are first-person narratives in which the narrative itself is given to the people and Alfredo documents them in a form of narrative journalism. It is a remarkable testimony of the absurdity of everyday violence and the effect it has upon people, many of whom have absolutely nothing to do with any of the parties in the conflict. People stuck in between and suffering the consequences of, sometimes completely absurd and sudden, violent outbursts and actions. A remarkable, deeply touching book.
Laura Quintana is another author recommended by my Colombian friends, so as the last of my four Colombian reads, I decide to read one of her books. Laura is an academic scholar and her literary production is not fiction, rather focused on political philosophy, social sciences and the dimensions of aesthetics. One of her most famous (The Politics of Bodies: Philosophical Emancipation and Beyond Rancière, 2020) refers to the “politics of the body” which refers to the “political emancipation of the body”. It sounds interesting but I decided to read Rabia. Afectos, violencia, inmunidad (2021) instead. I am not going to lie: I did think that it would be more connected to Colombia but it approaches the theme of anger and resentment more broadly, and that is a slight disappointment for me. She introduces very interesting elements such as the concept of rabia digna; a collective, justified anger that can be turned into a non-destructive political action or movement. She also talks about affective economies – processes in which emotions and affections are circulated as goods, e.g. how [collective] fear, anger or resentment is produced and used as currency in political and social actions. It is a very interesting book and relevant to times we live in, even if it is quite long and repetitive in parts.
THE COLOMBIAN FILM FESTIVAL
My four wonderful Colombian friends are quick to give recommendations and I decide to be completely guided by them, and see all the movies they say I should see. In the end the Colombian Film Festival includes eleven movies that my friends recommended, one that they did not recommend but I wanted to see anyway (because it has Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz); and then JK and I also decide to watch the Netflix series based on one of the best books in the universe, 100 years of solitude.
Let the Colombian Film Festival begin.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, the City of Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world. The murder rate in the city reached an unpresented incomprehensive 385-395 (depending on the source) murders per 100,000 people and violence was the cause of 42% of the deaths in the city with an average of 16 people being murdered every single day. The violence in the city was the result of a combination of things, most significantly the urban warfare of drug cartels. This was the peak time of Pablo Escobar, the most famous drug lord in the world. The movie Rodrigo D. No Futuro (Rodrigo D. No future, 1990) was filmed in Medellin 1986-88 by Víctor Gaviria, with mostly local amateur actors against the background of the daily violence. The sad backstory is that four of the young actors, mostly members of local gangs, died in gang-related violence before the movie’s premier. The movie is dedicated to their memory.
The movie focuses on Rodrigo D. who has a passion for punk music and dreams to be a punk drummer. He is surrounded by friends who find themselves deep in the violent lifestyle of the city, and slowly the walls around Rodrigo start to draw closer. The violence in the movie is never explicit, but ever-present. It is an incredibly brave and honest film not only describing life in the violent communas (where a sight of a dead body does not affect anyone much, even children) but also the draining nature of a future with no hope. It is also a testimony to the punk scene of the time that offered an outlet to the youth in the area including some of the actors in the film. It is a devastating film to watch, but raw and thoughtful in its portrayal of wasted lives.
The most famous movie of Víctor Gaviria and one of the most internationally known Colombian movies is La Vendedora de Rosas (the Rose Seller, 1998). This is another tough movie to watch, for similar reasons as his Rodrigo D. No Futuro. Again, Víctor opted to use non-professional actors from Medellin, people with life experience and knowledge of what it is like to grow up surrounded by violence, drug trafficking and poverty. And again, the ever-present violence is the umbrella overshadowing everything; it is astonishingly normal, so much that when two people kill a wrong person, there is no remorse, only a blunt statement of: “well, he was no good anyway.” And again, some of the actors met a violent end on the streets of Medellin. In 2014, out of 15 male actors that participated in the movie, only three were alive. What makes this movie, like Rodrigo D, so remarkable is the rawness and truthfulness of it. It is not meant to be social pornography but almost a documentary dressed up as fiction to tell what life is like when options are few and almost all the energy needs to be dedicated to surviving an urban jungle of violence, betrayal and vice.
The absurdity of a violent conflict is shown most effectively through the eyes of a child. Los coleres de la montaña (The colours of the mountain, 2010) by Carlos César Arbeláez shows the crude reality of people in a remote part in the countryside living pressed between the paramilitary, the army and the guerrilla. 9-year-old Manuel loves football and drawing, and for his birthday he gets a real football. Once the football falls in a minefield, the conflict becomes very real for Manuel and his friends. The movie grows gradually from idyllic living in a beautiful countryside, to a life without options, affected by senseless violence and desperate people finding themselves in an impossibly narrow place. Most people end up leaving their homes in a hurry and where do they end up? In urban environments of social and economic problems such as the two previous movies by Víctor, Rodrigo D. No Future and the Rose Seller. My friend CV says of this, and Víctor’s movies, that “this country hurts but this reality cannot made invisible.”
There is something magnetic, haunting and chilling about the movie La Sirga (the English title is The Towrope, 2013) by William Vega – even if not much happens. The movie is shot in an intriguing and unusual location, the Wetland of la Laguna de La Cocha (in Nariño, close to the border with Ecuador) surrounded in winter by an everlasting mist and constant rain. In the movie a young woman called Alicia arrives at the remote location of her estranged uncle’s house after her family is burned alive (due to the armed conflict). The violence is never explicit or shown, but somehow the atmosphere is filled with unspoken quiet fear and the armed conflict is gearing nearer very subtlety. It is a quiet movie of vulnerable people and the stalking shadow of armed conflict. Everything is understated and subtle, even the most devastating details. Alicia starts to heal but the threat returns when her cousin Freddy returns after years of absence. The actress, Joghis Seudin Arias, does an outstanding job in the role of the deeply traumatised, sleepwalking Alicia. In real life, she lost her father and grandfather to the guerrilla and that brings an unusual depth and rawness to her performance. Some reviewers have called the movie boring but I found it mesmerising. Of all the amazing films that I have seen for this stop, this is my top one.
Pájaros de Verano (Birds of Passage, 2018) was a huge winner in the 2019 Macondo Awards (The Colombian Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences). Filmed in the very cinematographic Guajira Peninsula, it is a Colombian drug mafia movie of easy money, reckless young men, corrupt police and senseless violence. But it is also a movie about the Indigenous clans in Guajira during the peak era of the Colombian marijuana trade (called the Bonanza Marimbera 1975-1985 – in 1975 approximately 75% of all farmers in Guajira substituted their crops with marijuana plants) when drug money was pouring in and old traditions were mixed with ‘Western values’. Greed is a universal human characteristic, and no community is saved from it, often leading to tragedy. The movie by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (who were married and divorced during the filming of this film) is filmed in the languages of Wayuú (part of the Arawak language family), Spanish and Wiwa (and a little bit of English). The film shows a gorgeous landscape, but also uneven rhythm and several plot holes. It is enjoyable for the fact that Indigenous clans are not portrayed as victims, but not as saints either. The western ways are clearly seeding destruction but the ancient ways in which women were treated as property and prisoners of tradition are also shown as flawed. Both JK and I enjoyed watching it and were quite mesmerised by the impactful landscape.
Maria, llena eres de Gracia (Maria, full of grace, 2004) belongs to its main actress, Catalina Sandino Moreno. She is mesmerising and nuanced in the role of Maria to the point that it does not feel like acting. In the movie, she becomes a human drug mule and gives such dignity to the simple country town girl in a desperate situation. It is painfully shown how she must swallow 60 pellets made of cut plastic gloves full of cocaine. It is an impactful movie that almost feels like a documentary at times. First-time director Joshua Marston was inspired by a real-life former drug mule in his neighbourhood of Brooklyn who told him what it was like to swallow tens of small heroin pellets. And yes, Catalina’s performance cannot be praised enough. She manages to make Maria a real person; someone not particularly brave or extraordinary; a young country girl with limited options in life choosing a dangerous path to survive. Hers is one story among many mules, and it becomes painfully clear in the movie.
Paraiso Travel (2008) is a movie about a current theme, illegal immigration – even if the premise of the movie is a bit silly, and there are much better movies about the topic. A young middle class Colombian man is obsessed with a girl called Reina (“queen”) who in turn is obsessed with moving to the United States – but not through an official way, insread bytaking a plane to Guatemala and continuing from there towards the US border. Marlon (the obsessed man) drains all common sense down the sink and follows her through a dangerous road to misery. He meets good and bad people on the road. It is not the first story in the history of cinema in which a young man is obsessed with a manipulative and deceiving Sexy Girl. He basically throws his life away for a promise that once they reach New York, she will finally have sex with him. The director, Simón Brand, had directed mainly music videos, which showed the overall quality of the film. There are references to the hardship immigrants go through when they take a perilous journey towards north but besides that it is a fairly shallow and cliché movie that does not really reach what it intends to do. The main actor (the sex-craving young man) is quite wooden in his role and not charismatic enough to carry a movie. The scenes in Guatemala and Mexico, albeit short, are the most impactful as they do give a glimpse of the cruel and devastating world of desperate people trying to find a better tomorrow.
La Virgen de los Sicarios (Our Lady of the Assassins, 2000) by Barbet Schroeder is another movie about the spiral of drug wars and violence in Medellin in the 1990s. It is based on the controversial biographical novel of Fernando Vallejo who returns to his hometown Medellin after thirty years of absence and gets involved in the world of teenage assassins, sicarios. Pablo Escobar has just died and the city is a war zone. The drug cartels are or have been contracting teenage killers from the communas who now are not only aggressive and trigger-sensitive but also without work. There is much to unpack in this movie including Fernando’s (who is in his 50s) involvement with teenage boys, the senseless daily violence (“that was the second of the day” says the pharmacists about a dead body to Fernando when he goes to buy ear plugs in the morning), the impact of religion in the lives of killers and drug lords (teenage killers go to pray to virgin Mary to bless their business of murdering), and the urban warfare. In one scene the characters go to the hills around Medellin and there is a sign : prohibited to throw dead bodies. It is a strange movie – very impactful in its depiction of the absolute senseless violence and the forensics of the transformation of Medellin from a textile industry city to a blood filled playground of young boys with guns. It is also disturbing in the portraying of the middle aged Fernando and his pseudointellectual lecturing to his humilde teenage lovers who are basically obliged to listen to his babbling.
It is probably fair to say that Los Viajes del Viento (The Wind Journey, 2009) is a road movie about music. Directed by Ciro Guerra, the other director of Pájaros de Verano (Birds of Passage, 2018) from whom I end up watching three movies for this Colombian Film Festival. This one is a slow-spaced, quite still movie about an old expert accordion player who, after his wife’s death, stops playing. He starts a long and slow journey to return the instrument to the master who gave it to him. He is accompanied by a young apprentice who wants to learn the secrets of accordion playing. The movie floats or drifts like a wind – the landscape is majestic (different locations in Northern Colombia), the plot is ’floating’ (not much happens and things just ‘float’), and music plays an important role. There are several still moments, long takes of landscapes, or groups of people or just people looking at the camera/to the distance for a long time – which makes it sometimes feel like a David Lynch movie. It is worth watching for the landscape and music.
El abrazo de serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent, 2015), again by Ciro Guerra, is an unusual and impactful movie. Filmed almost entirely in black and white, it is an astonishing tribute to the Amazon and its ecology. The main character is Karamakate, the last surviving member of his tribe, portrayed both as a young and old man through his relationship with two foreigners, forty years apart. It really is quite a captivating, remarkable movie that spans so many different themes; environment, memory, colonialism and Christianity. It is dream-like, poetic, haunting and a true homage to the majestic Amazon forest and the people that inhabit it. It is worthy of all the praise that has come its way. Even if La Sirga remains as my favourite of the Colombian Film Festival, this one is a close second.
La Tierra y la Sombra (Land and Shade, 2015) is another very still, quiet movie of minimal dialogue, long pauses, and a fascinating landscapes – situated in the Cauca Valley, close to the Andes, also the place of origin of the director César Augusto Acevedo. It won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It tells about destruction and the disappearance of traditional livelihoods. An old man, Alfonso, returns to his old house where his ex-wife lives with their son and the son’s family. The son is dying of the chemicals that surrounding sugarcane plantations release into the air. It is about remorse, loss and a struggling rural community. It is a movie of long silent shots, weather-beaten faces of former farmers working for the plantations (one of the most terrible jobs there is). It is beautiful and effective, but inevitably feels long. The director has said that the slow pace is deliberate as it is to reflect the atmosphere better. And it does feel slow, even if some of the photography is outstanding, almost like photos.
I decide to watch Loving Pablo (Fernando León de Aranoa, 2017) because of its leading actors, the amazing Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. It has not been recommended by any of my Colombian friends, and it really is not a very good movie. But both Penélope and Javier are extraordinary – especially Penélope who seems to get better and better with age. My theory is that because of her unreal beauty, she has not been able to show her talent in good roles until later in life, and again in this one she is outstanding. The movie of course is about Pablo Escobar, based on the memoir of journalist Victoria Vallejo called Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar describing her five-year affair with him. It describes the rise and fall of the King of Cocaine, the world’s most famous drug lord and is weirdly filmed in English with occasional Spanish. The decision to make all the characters speak in broken English is very strange. In conclusion, a mediocre movie with first class acting – especially in a scene in which Victoria (Penélope) faces sicarios who are after her.
JK and I finish the Colombian Movie Festival with the first eight episodes (the other eight episodes still in production in 2025) of the One Hundred Years of Solitude, produced by Netflix. When Gabriel García Márquez was alive, he did not grant film rights to the book. Therefore the family demanded that the series was to be filmed in Colombia, with a Colombian cast and in Spanish. The result is nothing short of magical, and quite loyal to the spirit of Gaby’s Opus Magna. It is such a complex and multinuanced book that some compromises have been made, but that does not matter as the result is quite mesmerising, visually and aesthetically impressive.
There is more than Shakira
Shakira is without doubt the most famous musician coming out of Colombia. Her break to the international market is nothing short of impressive and her transformation into a global stardom is quite unique. When TAV and I built the playlist for the Colombian afternoon, her request was “not just Shakira”. Without taking any merit out of Shakira’s success (if you watch her superbowl performance, it is quite easy to understand why she is as successful as she is from her cultural hybridity dancing to being a multi-instrumentalist), it is important to underline that there are many, many other musicians in Colombia. Colombia has a very rich musical tradition and has produced quite a few big stars, including Karol G, Maluma and Juanes.
Next stop: Comoros
Thank you wonderful L for your proofreading!