Well, CONDUCTOS, like cigarettes, should come with a very clear warning label: ALL THOSE ALLERGIC TO ART HOUSE MUST AVOID THIS FILM LIKE THE PLAGUE! Hmmmmm.... Just WHERE(¡?¿?!) do I begin??? To me it is PAINFULLY (Literally!) obvious that director Camilo Restrepo had quite a number unique and intense ideas bouncing around in his head for a rather prolonged period of time before actually taking on this ARTSY project!

Certainly, he must have been keenly obsessed to create the ultimate Colombian Art House Film PAR EXCELLENCE!

....A truly inspired cinematic MASTERPIECE which would serve as the benchmark for scores of other Colombian films for a decade or two to come! Consequently, this review must grapple with the following conundrum: Did Director Carlos Restrepo succeed in achieving his ever so lofty of goals??? My Answer....7******* ! (READ: Well.... Let´s give him 7 Stars for a most heoric effort = ALMOST!

My honest opinion is this film speaks for itself! It is painfully obvious that his effort was monumental... But fell, when being brutally honest, somewhat short of what RESTREPO sharply envisioned and strived for! Most certainly, if nothing else, Restrepo demontstrates his awareness that a DARK, rather opaque screen, tends to make the audience suffer and feel most uncomfortable. He applies this knowledge with an obvious emphasis on what results overkill!

Another inkling I get from CONDUCTOS is that most of the dialogue is ad-libbed! He must have painted an outline of each scene in very broad stokes and then let his rather talented actors pretty much take it from there! Notice that RESTREPO is also credited as Film Editor. Thusly, he could allow himself to put the all the finishing touches on his truly DARK vision!

We should look forward to his next cinematic venture... Which could very likely be much closer to the Cinematic Masterpiece for which he yearns so desperately!

A slow, strong, hopeful movie, and it will seem fairly opaque to many, I guess. The symbolism of color, reliance on self-voice but not much dialogue, and the ending pulled me to consider this movie in the 'hopeful' category, though there is very little sweetness involved in the plot. Slow, poetic, with a foggy plot at times, but it came full circle thanks to the end scene. Perhaps I watched it on a good timing. After a couple of mediocre, depleting examples, this one offered something else: it looked less inviting at first and more honest as it unfolded. It was far from depleting. It might as well be a statement in the form of a movie.

"Los Conductos" is not an easy watch and for the first fifteen minutes or so of this reasonably short film, (seventy minutes in total),you may be as much in the dark as the apparent protagonist literally is, particularly as he is the only character on screen, events, such as they are, happen in almost total darkness and there's no dialogue. A gun has been fired and he appears to be handling drugs so is this going to be a thriller? That doesn't seem likely, even after our protagonist begins his 'noirish' narration.

Shot in the Academy ratio on Kodak 16mm film, Camilo Restrepo's film begins like a political thriller but without the politics or the thrills, not quite avant-garde and not quite experimental but certainly not designed for mass consumption and bold enough to at least hold your attention as you try to figure out exactly what's happening. Restrepo's first feature is certainly original and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. As it has already garnered prizes at the Berlin and Mar Del Plata festivals I don't think he has anything to worry about.