From the 14th to the 17th of March, our city of Berlin will be hosting the 5th edition of the Panorama Colombia at the one and only, Babylon Kino in Rosa-Luxembourg Platz. With high profile films like The embrace of the serpent by Ciro Guerra and Birds of passage also by Guerra and Cristina Gallego as warm-up screenings, the festival is covering a wide range of Colombian movies. Also, this year’s edition is featuring a selection from one of the most important short-film selections of the country, Bogoshorts.
Background on the Panorama Colombia
For almost 100 years, Colombian cinematographers have been developing a unique style depicting the country’s and region’s reality. It may not be a coincidence that the South American film festival with the longest run and probably the most important one in the continent is the Cartagena Film Festival, which its 54th edition just ended this March 11th. Since the debut of the country’s first film, María in 1922 directed by the Spanish filmmaker Máximo Calvo, the aesthetics and development of the industry has grown and progressed significantly. So much has to be the interest and connection between Berlin and Colombia that last year, InterFilm Fest had a Colombian Focus with several guests.
The official selection of the Panorama Colombia
The sections on Panorama Colombia 2019 are several, showing the complexity and variety of films. But if you want to put it in numbers, the festival is presenting a total of 5 sections: The official feature selection, the documentary selection, the short film selection by Bogoshorts, the documentary short film program, and a retrospective on Jorge Navas with two long films: La sangre y la lluvia, (Blood and rain), Calicalabozo, and two short films: Alguien mató algo, and Madremonte.
