The tiny island of Santa Cruz is part of the San Bernardo archipelago off the Colombian Caribbean coast, situated within sight of its big sister Múcura. It’s not really an island, more of a coral reef that fishermen used for storage in the past. Then they brought their families here from the mosquito plagued islands, built huts, and today Santa Cruz is a city: 1,200 square metres, 97 houses, 500 inhabitants. Crowded with people and goods this unlikely place serves as a metaphor for our planet for the Colombian director Marcela Lizcano. El Cabo, an old fisherman and lobster diver, acts as a guide who knows how to describe the changes: fish is running low, the lobsters are disappearing and the sea has already swallowed six of the original 16 islands around Santa Cruz. His reflections lead to a residents’ meeting which demonstrates on a small scale how obstinacy, corruption and greed destroy our world. And then there are the children who roam everywhere and for whom the sea is a playground. Their future is not in Santa Cruz. They are drawn to the mainland, where the fun is. They will miss the sea when they wake up there in the mornings. With “Isolated” the director has created the very affectionate portrait of a community whose crisis mirrors all our problems. The only thing is – where can we go?

Matthias Heeder

In January 1988, the director’s two older brothers disappeared after a police check. Maria Fernanda Restrepo was ten years old. Her brothers were probably killed and thrown into Lake Yambo by the police. For more than twenty years, her father has gone to the city of Quito every week to protest against forgetting this case. Solving this crime, which is part of a long tradition of human rights violations in the history of Ecuador, has become the family’s sole purpose in life.
Maria Fernanda, the daughter, also sets out to find the perpetrators. Armed with a camera and microphone she defies policemen, secret service agents and once even a former president to confront them with the truth. Even though she hits a wall of silence or is mislead by false information and fake clues again and again, she gradually comes closer to the truth. Intelligent questions, bitter comments and angry humour are the tools the director uses to expose cowardice and lies, while her off-screen voice sets important accents in a traditional narrative.
The film makes us feel how every member of the family bears their disappointments, hopes and frustrations deep inside and how hard it is for them to share these feelings. And yet they stand together and draw incredible strength from their fight against forgetting. Their courage gives “Con mi corazón en Yambo” its powerful intensity.

– Paulo de Carvalho