Sins of My Father (film)

Sins of My Father
Directed by Nicolas Entel
Written by Nicolas Entel
Pablo Farina
Release dates
  • December 10, 2009 (2009-12-10) (Colombia)
Running time
94 minutes
Country Argentina
Colombia
Language Spanish

Sins of My Father (Spanish: Pecados de mi padre) is a 2009 Argentine-Colombian documentary film directed by Nicolas Entel. It tells the story of the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar from the inside perspective of his son, now living in Argentina under the name Sebastián Marroquín.

Synopsis

In 1993, after Pablo Escobar is gunned down by the police, his then sixteen-year-old son Juan Pablo flees to Argentina together with his mother and sister. To avoid being identified and in fear of his life he changes his name to Sebastián Marroquín. "My life was worth $4 million ... That’s the price they put on my head", he said. After a decade of silence, he and his mother publicly speak about the life of their family member for the first time. In an attempt to end the cycle of violence and to ask for forgiveness Marroquín travels to Colombia to meet the sons of two of his father's two most prominent murder victims: presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán and Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla as well as the son of the former Colombian president César Gaviria. In connection to telling the story of Pablo Escobar, the film also explores the recent violent history of Colombia as a "narco-state" and the country's illegal drug trade.

Production

In 2005, after declining multiple filmmakers, Marroquín met Entel who suggested making a documentary focused on the sons of the two famous men Escobar ordered killed in addition to Marroquín's inside perspective.[1] Questioned about the usefulness of Marroquín apologizing to the sons of his father's victims for crimes he himself did not commit, Entel said the point was to promote reconciliation, "[the film] has the value of saying, 'It stops here. We are not going to inherit our parents' hatred.'"[2] Marroquín's accepted to participate in the project on two conditions: that "Pablo Escobar" was not included in the title and that his sister was not shown.[3] The film includes personal never-seen-before material of the Escobar family.[1]

Entel said of Marroquin: "It was very hard to get Sebastian to agree. It took me more than six months to get him on-board. Basically, he felt that he was risking his life by finally breaking his silence and letting the world know where he was and that his name was Sebastian Marroquin. But, I think he understood that I wasn't just trying to glamourize his father's image but I was trying to do something different, telling things from the point of view of his generation. I think that's what helped him to take this chance."[4]

Awards

Award Category Recipient(s) Result
Miami International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: Dox Competition[5] Nicolas Entel Won
Audience Award: Dox Competition[5] Nicolas Entel Won
Havana Film Festival Best Doc Award[6] Nicolas Entel Won
Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema - Documentary Nicolas Entel Nominated
News & Documentary Emmy Award Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound David Majzlin Nominated
Argentine Film Critics Association Awards Best Documentary Feature Nicolas Entel Nominated

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, July 29, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.