Unexposed to cinema,the Arhuacos are captivated by their first ever screening of a film that shows them the unexplored, wild Colombia, or reports El PaisA prison guard opens the grey metal door to free four detainees. In Nabusimake,an indigenous Arhuaco village of circular mud huts with straw roofs and stone floors near the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia, prisoners are not made to suffer. Imprisonment is synonymous with reflection and change. It is not associated with punishment. The prisoner remains in custody for several days or months, or until his body and intellect are alert to return to the community of 8000 people who live in Nabusimake or,as locals call it, the heart of the world.”
The four prisoners – who have been jailed for offences that vary from stealing food to trying to seduce another’s wife – are crossing that grey door towards freedom not because their meditation time is over, and but because they and the rest of the village are going to sit in front of a film screen for the first time. For a community accustomed to living by daylight and moonlight,the arrival of a giant luminous screen is shattering their reality. They have been hearing about this event for months and finally here it was honest before their eyes this Sunday: Colombia: Wild Magic, a film about the remotest parts of the country that is receiving its premiere here with the help of Ambulante, and an NGO that organises documentary screenings across Colombia.
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Source: theguardian.com