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Q&A: Colombian director uses road movie to cast light on country's displaced

News Stories, 12 July 2010

© Courtesy Gaviria/Serrano
Colombian director Carlos Gaviria and actress Indhira Serrano both met with individuals displaced by conflict in Colombia ahead of making the film 'Portraits in a Sea of Lies'.

BOGOTA, Colombia, July 12 (UNHCR) – Colombian director Carlos Gaviria's movie Portraits in a Sea of Lies revolves around a road trip taken by Marina and her cousin Jairo to recover the land from which they were displaced many years ago. They travel in a battered old Renault from the capital, Bogotá, to the Caribbean coast and each day find themselves more and more haunted by their traumatic past. UNHCR's regional public information officer Francesca Fontanini spoke to Gaviria and actress Indhira Serrano about the film and Colombia's displaced.

Carlos Gaviria:

Where did the idea for the film come from?

I wrote the first version of the script over fifteen years ago. I spent many years studying outside of Colombia and I wanted to make a film about my country. There are many elements in the film that are the result of nostalgia, landscapes, food, tours through the country and the good side of people. When I returned to Colombia and saw how things were, new elements arose for the story, especially issues regarding war, of a country used to living in the midst of an internal conflict, a country that doesn't think it's abnormal that ten percent of the population has been displaced.

What was the greatest difficulty you faced in making the film?

The main challenge was how to present the magnitude of the tragedy. As a filmmaker, I was interested in the phenomenon of displacement from the point of view of the victims, not the numbers. We wanted to focus more on the wounds than on the killings. We hoped to show the consequences of displacement on an individual person especially a child. We heard many stories that were truly heartbreaking.

Do you think the film has helped educate people about the lives of those displaced within their own country?

I think the film has made a small contribution to humanizing the conflict and especially the situation of the victims. Too often the victims of displacement in Colombia are viewed with mistrust and are wrongly suspected of being somehow complicit with the armed group that forced them to flee. This has led some Colombians to react with indifference towards them. When people see the film, the response we get is one of empathy for the main character's story. Outside of Colombia, audiences have been surprised by the magnitude of the problem. Most had no knowledge of the conflict in Colombia and the displacement it has caused.

© Courtesy Gaviria/Serrano
Colombian actress Indhira Serrano.

Indhira Serrano:

Can you describe your character in the film?

The main character of the film is a child who moves from a rural area to Bogotá and, completely traumatized by the displacement, thinks back to her former life and her old teacher, which is my character, who was very close to her family. Fifteen years later, the girl returns to her village and finds her teacher, who apologizes for not doing more to look after the girl in the aftermath of the tragedy that destroyed her family. I hope that my character embodies the values of friendship, peace and innocence and at the same time the fear that can sometimes override these values.

Did you talk with any internally displaced persons to prepare yourself for this role?

I began on my own, reading many articles and stories about displacement and the impact of the conflict, particularly in rural areas. In recent years, I have also been working with the organization "Kids for a New Planet". They work with children who have been sexually abused and children living in marginalized areas of the capital, Bogotá, as well as displaced children that come there from different parts of the country. This experience gave me an insight into how these children see life, which is completely different from a child who has grown up in normal conditions.

Anything else you learned through making this film?

What a displaced person needs most is a home. Of course they need basics such as food and education because without these there is no way of living. But I think what hurts most is the lack of roots. Coming to a place where you have no connection to anything is a horrible feeling. I think that my country, Colombia, has lost a bit of its sense of community. People are more worried about their safety and what is going on around them and it can be hard for them to understand the lives of the displaced.

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Colombia: Life in the Barrios

After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.

Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.

UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected – including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

Indigenous people in Colombia

There are about a million indigenous people in Colombia. They belong to 80 different groups and make up one of the world's most diverse indigenous heritages. But the internal armed conflict is taking its toll on them.

Like many Colombians, indigenous people often have no choice but to flee their lands to escape violence. Forced displacement is especially tragic for them because they have extremely strong links to their ancestral lands. Often their economic, social and cultural survival depends on keeping these links alive.

According to Colombia's national indigenous association ONIC, 18 of the smaller groups are at risk of disappearing. UNHCR is working with them to support their struggle to stay on their territories or to rebuild their lives when they are forced to flee.

UNHCR also assists indigenous refugees in neighbouring countries like Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil. UNHCR is developing a regional strategy to better address the specific needs of indigenous people during exile.

Indigenous people in Colombia

Panama's Hidden Refugees

Colombia's armed conflict has forced millions of people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in other countries in the region.

Along the border with Colombia, Panama's Darien region is a thick and inhospitable jungle accessible only by boat. Yet many Colombians have taken refuge here after fleeing the irregular armed groups who control large parts of jungle territory on the other side of the border.

Many of the families sheltering in the Darien are from Colombia's ethnic minorities – indigenous or Afro-Colombians – who have been particularly badly hit by the conflict and forcibly displaced in large numbers. In recent years, there has also been an increase in the numbers of Colombians arriving in the capital, Panama City.

There are an estimated 12,500 Colombians of concern to UNHCR in Panama, but many prefer not to make themselves known to authorities and remain in hiding. This "hidden population" is one of the biggest challenges facing UNHCR not only in Panama but also in Ecuador and Venezuela.

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