La Playa DC
(La Playa DC)

Tomás, a young Afro-Colombian, left one hostile territory for another when he fled his war-torn village. When his younger brother Jairo disappears he sets out to find him, but the La Playa district in Bogotá where he lives seems like a mapped out and ever-changing network. The capital is hostile not so much because of its size but because it is mainly white. It is no coincidence that his interest in Afro hairstyles – clipper-cut calligraphies inherited from the era of slavery – helps Tomás find his way around. Marked by his experience as director of photography for documentaries and perhaps by the “Dardenne method” (handheld camera following the protagonist step by step), Juan Andrés Arango suggests correspondences between the mazes in the incredible shopping mall where Tomás works (Galaxcentro 18, “revived” especially for the needs of the story) and a hairstyling tradition akin to cartography. CG