With her striking good looks and privileged family connections (her mother was a former Miss Colombia, her father a Colombian diplomat and her first husband a member of the French diplomatic service) Ingrid Betancourt could have lived a luxurious, not to mention safe, life in Europe. Instead, horrified by the corruption in her native land, torn apart by 40 years of civil war and decades of fighting between drug cartels, she entered Colombian politics.
Her initial success and determination to speak out about corruption soon plunged her into danger. She narrowly escaped an ambush on the streets of the capital Bogota and death threats were sent to her and her family. Having to pay what she terms in this film 'the price for any woman who wants to live her life completely', Betancourt took the difficult decision to send her children away in order to continue her political career.
Although threats didn't stop her, the jungle based army of the FARC did (Farc is short for Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia a guerilla force that has been fighting the Colombian government since the 1960s).
Her decision during her presidential campaign to enter a demilitarised zone with hardly any backup - in order to negotiate with the rebels and persuade them to stop their campaign of kidnapping - backfired horribly.
Ingrid Betancourt was last heard from as a free woman on 23 February 2002. Five days later the filmmakers, Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes, who had originally intended to join Betancourt on her Presidential campaign trail, decided to turn their cameras on her family and supporters who allowed a candid (and at times extremely raw) glimpse into their attempts to come to terms with the sudden loss of this impressive woman.
Her eloquence, compassion and sheer presence can be gauged from the first 30 minutes, largely culled from home video footage, political rallies and an extended interview she gave on American radio just a few days before her disappearance.
So too can the bloody-minded determination that eventually landed her trouble. After that, it's her unwilling silence that marks out the film.
We see her second husband, political novice Juan Carlos Lecompte, battling to keep her political party alive, ensuring that her name still appears on the ballot (because more than 1,000 people a year are kidnapped in Colombia, provisions have been made to allow absent candidates to stand in elections).
Meanwhile, he and the rest of her family struggles to cope with her disappearance. The moment when her ex-husband has to leave a telephone message telling her that her beloved father has died is almost too painful to watch.
Still, in spite of all this tragedy, the film provides hope for the future in the form of two haunting videos of Betancourt herself, provided by her captors in 2003 and 2004 to prove that she is still alive.
As far as anyone knows, she remains a prisoner to this day. It can only be hoped that, fitting as it may be, this excellent film does not provide her last testament.
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