The Soldier’s Lagoon
Pablo Álvarez-Mesa, 2024, 77 min

The Soldier’s Lagoon (La Laguna del Soldado) is the second part in Pablo Álvarez-Mesa’s trilogy of films retracing Simón Bolívar’s passage during the Liberation Campaign of Colombia in 1819. The film follows Bolivar’s path high into the Andean mountains and the foggy páramo ecosystem through which he led his troops in their final march towards Bogotá. Referred to as “the land of the mist” by Spanish Conquistadors, the páramo is a major source of water for the country but the extreme temperatures and high altitude make it an incredibly harsh and treacherous environment for humans. Álvarez-Mesa reflects on the weight of history in the territory, combining 16mm imagery with testimony from a polyphony of voices including botanists, crafts people and historians to excavate centuries of buried trauma and violence from the land.

Followed by Q&A with Pablo Álvarez-Mesa

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Presented as part of Open City Documentary Festival