Amparo

Medellín, Colombia, 1998. The army regularly raids the city’s poor suburbs. They randomly detain teenagers and force them to enlist, causing many mothers to go to the gates of the barracks, begging for their sons’ release. Because without much training, the recruits are being sent off to the most dangerous corners of the country to fight the guerrilla. Corrupt officers can make some big money of desperate parents trying to buy their child’s freedom. ‘Unfortunately the war is for the poor,’ an officer cynically says to Amparo, who is unable to come up with the amount requested. She is the mother of eighteen-year-old Elías and starts a race against the clock to gather the two million pesos for her detained Elías. ‘Amparo’ poignantly shows the powerlessness of the lowest social class and the vulnerable position of single women in a Latin-American country. The machismo and the arrogance of those in power are visualised in a cold, sharp manner. Because of the camera always filming the main character in close-up, your attention is constantly drawn to Amparo.