Cinema
El río de las tumbas
Julio Luzardo · 1965
Synopsis
Bodies wash up on the bank of the Magdalena, thrown from a bridge at night by men in a van. Chocho, a simpleton, finds one and runs to tell the mayor and the police sergeant, who do not listen to him. His sister Rosa María insists, an investigator eventually comes and concludes it is murder, but the village refuses to believe that anyone could be killed in such a quiet place. Meanwhile, Rosa María and her fiancé talk of leaving for somewhere else.
Context
Shot in 1964 at Villavieja, in the Huila, and in the Tatacoa desert, under a working title that took up the Indian name of the Magdalena, and released on 11 March 1965. The screenplay is by the director and a playwright, based on a story by two men of the theatre, and the music by two composers well known in the country. The river carrying the dead was then a recognisable image of the violence in the countryside, and the film treats it through the silence of the authorities rather than through a description of the killings. Andrés Caicedo, a critic from Cali, reviewed it in his magazine.
Who it is for
Ninety minutes in black and white, in Spanish. The violence stays off screen; what weighs on the film is the indifference of the town's notables.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the classics of Colombian cinema, and shown at film clubs decades after its release.
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