The Colors of the Mountains (2010)

This is a Film Movement film from Columbia, and it upholds the high standards that the series has for stunning cinematography combined with compelling stories.  These movies are not for the faint of heart.

This film is about the FARC in Columbia--it is told through the eyes of children.  Manuel (Ocampo) and his buddies Julian (Nolberto Sanchez) and Poca Luz (Genaro Aristizabal) live in a small farming community high in the Colombian mountains of Antioquia. Manuel's proud, stubborn father, Ernesto (Hernan Mendez), is under threat from the local rebels for having failed to show up to their meetings. The rebels control the area, and remaining neutral is not an option.  Ernesto does not respond quickly or appropriately to the danger, and I spent the whole movie waiting for the consequences of that indecision to occur.
Shortly after a jaw-dropping scene in which a pig is blown up by a landmine, Manuel loses his new soccer ball in the minefield. He spends the rest of the film using the hapless Poca Luz to try and recover it in scenes both mildly comic and suspenseful--it is almost a surrogate for the situation that the adults are living under.  The innocent become the victims. Ernesto's increasing tension about their safety is shown to be justified when the FARC kidnaps Julian's father (Antonio Galeano). Simply unlucky to live where he does, Manuel understands none of the reasons behind the violence around him: He is at times irritating in his niavete.  Which is the beauty of telling this story from his point of view.  His father isn't responding either, and yet we tolerate it better in Mauel's case.  Stunning natural scenery conjures a sense of space and freedom that contrasts powerfully with the increasingly narrow options of its inhabitants.  The action takes place in Columbia but the message could have come from a number of Central and South American countries.