Who Shot My Brother?
Qui A Tir Sur Mon Frère?
Germán Gutiérrez
Canada | 2005 | 95mins | Beta | Colour | Subtitled

Sometimes a phone call can turn your life upside down, like the one Germán Gutiérrez got from Colombia informing him there had just been an assasination attempt on his older brother Oscar.

Far from the homeland he left some thirty years ago, the Montreal-based filmmaker has made several documentaries in an effort to understand the violence and corruption that have long dominated Colombia’s political culture. Through the sharply focused lens that defines his talent as a director and cinematographer, his latest film takes a courageous look at what Colombia has become at the turn of the twenty-first century: an Eldorado run by a corrupt middle-class, where oil is more precious than gold and white Americans are the puppet-masters pulling the strings while traffickers, guerillas and paramilitaries wage combat with each other in an all-out war on drugs.

Gripped by fear, Germán Gutiérrez sets out to find the two hired gunmen who tried to murder his brother. He was terrified at the thought that they might finish the job.

This documentary takes us on a journey into the depths of a society collapsing from within – a journey that leaves the filmmaker just as fearful for his brother’s life on his return to Montreal as he was when he left.