Violence, Affect, and the Promise of Reconciliation in Colombian Contemporary Cinema

Abstract

This essay examines three Colombian films that explore affect as a way to articulate alternative modes of historical reconstruction. By establishing a dialogue between Víctor Gaviria's Rodrigo D, No futuro (1989), César Augusto Acevedo's La tierra y la sombra (2015), and Laura Mora's and Matar a Jesús (2017), this critical approach to violence in recent Colombian cinema traces the articulation of an ethical and aesthetic resistance to address the past as past, that is, as a dimension that must be collectively assimilated as overcome to inaugurate a new era of peace and national prosperity.