'Five Years, Four Months' Review: Colombia's Missing
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- 'Five Years, Four Months' premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, marking the second feature from directing duo Juan Miguel Gelacio and Esteban Hoyos García.
- Jenny Nava stars as Martha Baquero, a fictional character based on real stories of mothers who worked with the filmmakers, delivering a largely wordless performance as she searches for her son Fabian's remains.
- The film is set against Colombia's ongoing forced disappearances, a crisis that has affected thousands since conflicts between the government and paramilitary and guerrilla groups began in the mid-1960s.
- Martha joins a dance therapy class for grieving mothers and later follows Sandra, played by Carmiña Martínez (of 'Birds of Passage'), on a journey to consult a 'dead man' who claims he can help locate Fabian.
- The directors use meticulous sound design, drawn-out bus journeys, and slow-motion dream sequences of anonymous bodies in dark forests to create what the review calls tension 'so intense it frequently borders on the horrific.'
- The film's most devastating moment comes when Martha speaks about her son for the first time, intercut with lush Colombian nature that seems to vibrate with his 'youthful enthusiasm' and her 'endless love.'
Why it matters: Colombia's forced disappearances have affected thousands of families since the mid-1960s conflict began, yet mainstream cinema rarely centers the mothers who continue searching decades later. By fictionalizing real women's testimonies and premiering in a major European festival competition, the directors give the long-term trauma of forced disappearance a sensory, human dimension that demands the viewer sit with grief that doesn't resolve.
