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THE KIDNAPPING OF INGRID BETANCOURT
A film by VICTORIA BRUCE and KARIN HAYES
Winner of the | USA | 2003 | 76 & 56 minutes | This is the story of Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped on 23 February 2002 by the FARC (the largest guerrilla army in Colombia) and her family’s desperate attempts to free her and keep her political dream alive. On 26 May 2002, filmmakers Victoria Bruce and Karin Hayes watched the Colombian presidential election from Bogota’s Plaza de Bolivar. But the subject of their documentary, the controversial presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, never arrived. Instead, the candidate appeared in the Plaza as a cardboard torso, carried in the arms of her husband and mother. In this documentary, Ingrid Betancourt tells her own life story, how she gave up a life of privilege to embark on a dangerous fight against political corruption in her native Colombia. The film continues after the day she is kidnapped and documents her family and her political party, thrown into upheaval, as they continue her campaign and fight to gain her freedom. Ingrid is one of the thousands of victims of Colombia’s 40-year-old civil war. For some time now there has been hope that she might be freed in a prisoner exchange. To date the FARC has released two ''proof of life'' videos of Ingrid. On 23 February 2004, Ingrid marked her second year in captivity.
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| © Films Transit International 2005 | |
