Ciro Guerra | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Guerra in 2017 | |
| Born | (1981-02-06)6 February 1981 (age 44) Río de Oro, Colombia |
| Occupation(s) | Film director Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1998–present |
Ciro Guerra (born 6 February 1981) is a Colombianfilm director andscreenwriter. He is best known for his 2015 filmEmbrace of the Serpent, which was nominated forBest Foreign Language Film at the88th Academy Awards, and forThe Wind Journeys, selected as the Colombian entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the82nd Academy Awards.
He made his first film,Wandering Shadows, in 2004 at the age of 23. The film was selected as Colombian submission forBest Foreign Language Film at the78th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. His next film,The Wind Journeys, competed in theUn Certain Regard section at the2009 Cannes Film Festival[1] and was selected as Colombian submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the82nd Academy Awards; it also was not selected.
His 2015 filmEmbrace of the Serpent was screened in theDirectors' Fortnight section at the2015 Cannes Film Festival,[2][3] where it won the C.I.C.A.E. Award. It won the Best Film award in the International Film Festivals ofOdesa and Lima, where it also received a special prize from the Critics Jury. The film was also among the nominees forBest Foreign Language Film at the88th Academy Awards, being the first Colombian film ever to be nominated.[4]
On 22 November 2017,Netflix ordered the limited seriesGreen Frontier to production.Green Frontier is based on an original idea from Diego Ramírez Schrempp and Jenny Ceballos of Dynamo Producciones.[5][6][7] Guerra is credited as an executive producer of the series, alongside, Diego Ramírez Schrempp, Andrés Calderón, Jorge Dorado and Cristian Conti. The series was directed by Guerra,Laura Mora Ortega and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal and written by Mauricio Leiva-Cock, Antón Goenechea, Camila Brugrés, Gibrán Portela, Javier Peñalosa, María Camila Arias,Natalia Santa and Nicolás Serrano.[8][9] The miniseries premiered onNetflix on 16 August 2019.[10]
In 2018, Guerra released his fourth feature film,Birds of Passage, which was filmed inLa Guajira Desert, Colombia. Guerra states that it is "like a gangster film, but something completely different from any gangster film that you have ever seen".[11][12]
Guerra has also directed anadaptation ofJ. M. Coetzee's novelWaiting for the Barbarians, starringMark Rylance,Johnny Depp,Robert Pattinson,Gana Bayarsaikhan, andGreta Scacchi. The film premiered at theVenice Film Festival on 6 September 2019, and was released on 7 August 2020, by Samuel Goldwyn Films.[13]
He was the jury president of theInternational Critics' Week section of the2019 Cannes Film Festival.[14]
Guerra was married to his longtime producerCristina Gallego. The couple divorced during the filming ofBirds of Passage, which they co-directed.[15]
In 2020, Latin American feminist periodicalVolcánicas published the story of eight women in the film industry accusing Guerra of sexual harassment.[16] Guerra denied the accusations and vowed to pursue legal action against those who had made them.[17] In May 2021, a court inBogotá, Colombia, ruled in favour of Guerra and ordered the magazine to rectify its report, as their claims lacked detail and evidence.[18] In response, in the same month,Volcánicas published more details and new accusations in their investigation.[19] After a legal battle, theConstitutional Court of Colombia overruled and revoked all previous decisions, denying Guerra's pretentions (thus confirming the journalists' right to free speech).[20]
| Year | Film | Credited as | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Notes | |||||
| 1998 | Silence | Yes | Short. | ||||
| 1999 | Documental siniestro: Jairo Pinilla, cineasta | Yes | Documentary. | ||||
| 2000 | Alma | Yes | Yes | Short. | |||
| 2001 | Intento | Yes | Yes | Animated short film. | |||
| 2004 | Wandering Shadows | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2009 | The Wind Journeys | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2015 | Embrace of the Serpent | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2018 | Birds of Passage | Yes | Co-directed with Cristina Gallego. | ||||
| 2019 | Green Frontier | Yes | Netflix mini-series. Executive producer. | ||||
| 2019 | Waiting for the Barbarians | Yes | |||||
Media related toCiro Guerra at Wikimedia Commons