Irish Film Institute -The Wandering Shadows

The Wandering Shadows

Director: Ciro Guerra

COLOMBIA • 2004 • SUBTITLED • BLACK AND WHITE • DOLBY STEREO • 94 MIN.


Beckett goes to Bogota in this wonderfully offbeat feature debut by 23-year-old Colombian director Ciro Guerra. Shot in black and white, The Wandering Shadows explores the unlikely relationship between two outcasts, Mañe (Cesar Badillo), a cripple who struggles to get by, and Sargento (Lowin Allende), a bizarre silleterro who subsists by transporting people on his back throughout the streets of Bogota. Both characters are socially isolated, but by joining forces they find the strength to overcome some obstacles and transcend their miserable lives. Although focusing on the lowest social level of a country devastated by poverty and violence, the film isn’t a moralising work but offers the most dehumanised beings a shot at dignity and redemption. Guerra is clearly a David Lynch aficionado, and the awkward, comic relationship between his two characters is a combination of Laurel and Hardy and Godot, with wry, absurd conversations mixing with lengthy silences.

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