‘Colombia in My Arms’ shows the reality of the country after the peace deal signed by the Government and the FARC

• Jenni Kivisto and Jussi Rastas are the directors of ‘Colombia in My Arms’, a film  which aims to show the reality of Colombia following the peace deal. “We attempted to mirror our experience with the characters,” says Kivisto.”The story is told through the eyes of the protagonist”.

10/27/2020.- In Rastas’s words, the directors felt “a connection” with Ernesto, the documentary’s the protagonist, a guerrilla chosen from among 15 interviewees. In addition, the director pointed out that “he was very natural in front of the camera and allowed us to reconstruct his passage from the jungle to the city.” What’s most important for the documentary filmmaker, “many people went out of sight as we where making the film, they ceased to be available after a couple of months. But Ernesto was.”

One of the witnesses in the documentary claims that “we had to take advantage of the war and make a living out of it too”, Kivisto explained in reference to activities like growing coca leaves: ” They were looking for a source of livelihood, since many of the villages where they used to live were now abandoned”.

In addition, Rastas pointed out that at present “part of the FARC is still up in arms but the majority are trying to integrate themselves in society”. Indeed , the main goal of the agreement with the Government consisted in that the FARC should surrender their weapons in exchange for being included in political life and not estranged from civil society.