The life of Héctor Abad Gómez, one of Colombia’s most beloved national figures, is beautifully dramatized by the director of ‘Belle Epoque’.
Almodóvar regular Javier Cámara plays Gómez, in this adaptation of his son’s Héctor Abad Faciolince richly evocative memoir. It recounts life in the turbulent South American country in the 1970s and 1980s, charting how the city of Medellín’s descent into corruption transformed the halcyon days of Héctor’s youth as his father became an increasingly outspoken critic of the government. Shifting between the stark black and white images of the 1980s and warmer colour tones that define life the 1970s, Fernando Trueba’s film balances a nuanced portrait of family life with the harsher realities of a rapidly changing world. Cámara, who excelled as the nurse in ‘Talk to Her’, movingly captures Gómez as both caring father and activist whose politics were based less on ideology and more on the human rights of everyday people in being able to access the necessities of life: Food, water and adequate shelter.
