‘Retratos de familia’ (Family Portraits), a documentary on the fight of the Mothers of Soacha

Last Thursday September 26th the documentary Retratos de familia was premiered at the Cinemes Méliès in Barcelona, a film by the Colombian director Alexandra Cardona Restrepo which depicts the struggle of the Mothers of Soacha in Colombia. The documentary narrates the suffering of this group of mothers for the disappearance and extrajudicial execution of their sons, and focuses on their courage to fight for truth and justice and against impunity.
After the screening, the audience had the opportunity to talk with the documentary director. Ms. Alejandra Cardona Restrepo explained that, for her, working with these group of mothers, was a significant learning: ‘They have given us a lesson. They come from poor rural families, no one was supposed to look for and after these boys, but they did; they unburied and brought them back home. They have fought so that no one else has to live a tragedy like theirs. They don’t want revenge, they just demand justice’.
According to the director, Retratos de familia aims at raising social conscience: ‘As long as the atmosphere of terror and violence continues to exist in Colombia, it is necessary to raise public awareness, and cinema is a very useful tool to do so. We can all contribute to make peace, to building a strong and lasting peace. We can all do so, except the guerrilla and the corrupt politicians, who have already proved they can’t’.
The premiere also counted with the participation of ICIP president, Rafael Grasa, who is an expert on the conflict in Colombia. Grasa summoned the audience to notice that ‘precisely now, when the peace process in Colombia is ongoing, it is more important than ever to maintain the solidarity towards the Colombian people and to fight against impunity, so that tragedies such as the Soacha one are never forgotten and repeated, as they are great violations of human rights’.
Retratos de familia has been a success among the public so far and will also be presented at several different places in Colombia in the near future.
The screening at the Cinemes Méliès in Barcelona was co organized by ICIP, the Taula per la Pau i els Drets Humans a Colòmbia and the Human Rights Institute of Catalonia.