Todos tus muertos – All Your Dead Ones (2011)

Directed by: Carlos Moreno | 88 minutes | drama | Actors: Alvaro Rodriguez, Jorge Herrera, Martha Marquez

“One dead person is a tragedy. If there are suddenly fifty dead, it is a figure from the statistics”, says director Carlos Moreno about his film ‘Todos tus muertos’. The story of farmer Salvador, according to Moreno, describes something universal, more than just the Colombian situation. It deals with the universal theme of indifference to misery, violence and death. The reason for the story comes from a Colombian news fact that Moreno heard. Two mayors of neighboring villages argued over a pile of bodies found. Not because they were so worried about the dead in question now, but mainly because neither of them wanted to take the stats into account. Moreno depicts in a morbid way that human drama is dealt with in this indifferent way. It is clear that the authorities and the civil service have a hard time in the story. In addition to the local authorities and the gangsters who exert pressure on them, international human rights organizations are also ridiculed. It becomes clear that they too have little to contribute. That in the end no one can escape indifference, Moreno makes clear by also letting the main character Salvador and his wife make love the evening after the oppressive events in exactly the same impersonal way as the night before. Nothing has changed, even with them. The little son of the two also acts pragmatically and as soon as no one is looking, grabs a toy that he can use well from between the bodies. In order to also confront the viewer with his own indifference – those who switch to this film after the news quickly fall prey to the ‘habitation’ of piles of corpses – Moreno incorporates alienating elements in the film. Sometimes a corpse suddenly opens its eyes and appears to be alive. This forces you to consider the fact that these unknown corpses are all someone, have an identity despite the stoic way in which they are treated.

Despite successes on the festival circuit, the film has not yet reached the general public in Colombia. According to Moreno, because the Colombian viewer mainly gets to see foreign films and turns their backs on national cinema. Hopefully that will change with his next film ‘El cartel de los sapos’, an adaptation of a very popular television series, which will be released in 2011, because a film like this is important for the national market. Despite the universal character that Moreno wants to convey, the Colombian character is strongly present. The arepa that Salvador consumes in the morning, the scorching heat, the languid atmosphere in the village and the scandalously inefficient bureaucracy: clearly Colombia, but a one-sided Colombia. Director Moreno has made little effort to incorporate other layers into the film besides his main message. The message Moreno wants to convey has arrived loud and clear. The way too. The question is, however, whether this way is really the best. The indifference of the characters irrevocably spills over onto the viewer. Confronting and embarrassing really, if you think about it, but also inevitable. The fact that virtually every human being is guilty of the kind of indifference that Moreno speaks of is not news. A film like this makes it clear but unfortunately it is not a remedy.