Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to NYC as part of Latin Media and Entertainment Week this coming Monday, October 3: LA TOMA/THE SIEGE

Angus Gibson and Miguel Salazar’s gripping account of the 1985 siege of Bogota, Colombia’s Palace of Justice made its US premiere earlier this summer as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Cinema Tropical brings the film back to NYC during LMEW for a free screening at the New York Times Building (to attend RSVP as directed at the LMEW link above).

The film relates the shocking assault on the government building that housed Colombia’s Supreme Court by a guerilla group known as M-19. For 27 hours, the guerillas hold hundreds of citizens hostage, including the Supreme Court Justices. After the military breaks the siege in a violent firefight, scores are dead, but, strangely, a dozen people vanish. Despite denials, many believe they were “disappeared” by the government for alleged collaboration with the guerillas, and 25 years later, their families lead the charge to find out what happened that day. To tell the story, Gibson and Salazar employ remarkable footage of the siege that was shot on the ground as the action unfolded, lending the doc a freshness and immediacy that is truly riveting. Unlike many other films about the disappeared, the film’s focus on a trial against the leader of the military operation, Colonel Plazas Vega, provides a welcome sense of resolution to the story. With such instances of people “vanishing” sadly all-too-common in other regimes in Central and South America, the families’ case resonates with hope for a return to justice.