Indias Catalina of Cartagena festival were made with bullet casings

Cartagena (Colombia), 19 Mar The Catalina Indias which the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI) presents to its winners were made with bullets fired by the Colombian Police, the commercial manager of the Grabar company, Indira Durán, told Efe. Grabar's manager said the goal is to show that bullet casings can be “symbols of peace and reconciliation.” “The dream stems from the fact that not only does a weapon serve to kill, but it also serves to inspire cinema, culture and theater,” he said, adding: “We are great thinkers about peace, about the (peace) agreement and this was developed with material that when used in bullets can take a person's life.” For the 61st edition of FICCI, which this year has Spanish actress Rossy de Palma as its special guest, 41 Indias Catalina were made and manufactured with around 1,500 bullet casings. For several years now, Grabar has been converting these elements that have been present in the Colombian armed conflict into the elaboration of other products such as the decorations received by members of the Colombian armed forces. They also drew up the decoration that the Government of Colombia gave to cyclist Egan Bernal, after winning the Tour de France triumph. The base that holds the golden statuettes was made of cultivated teak wood because in the company they try to be “sustainable and not use wood from native forests,” Durán said. During this festival, the oldest in Latin America, which returns in person after two years in which the pandemic had to take place in a hybrid way, it presents more than 150 films including feature films, short fiction and documentary films, as well as animated and experimental films. This year FICCI is screening two film cycles in tribute to the great directors: the Italian Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Frenchman François Truffaut. The festival also offers sections dedicated to films with an erotic focus and Afro cinema, while showing its usual sections of Fictions from here, there and acullá and Documentes, dedicated to documentary feature films. This edition of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival will end on 21 March with the screening of five short films. CHIEF ric/jga/jrh (photo)