The Supreme Uneasiness: Incessant Portrait of Fernando Vallejo

Luis Ospina's entertaining and provocative documentary mixes interview clips with day-in-the-life footage of Fernando Vallejo, the Colombian writer/filmmaker/political commentator who is best known to American audiences for his novel Our Lady of the Assassins, which was adapted into a 2000 film by Barbet Schroeder. Many will find Vallejo's opinions either too outrageous (he is opposed to the process of procreation—you have to hear this to believe it!) or too aphorism-ready (he claims to be bisexual: “I like sleeping with men and boys”) or too shortsighted (he's no great fan of Latin America's literary environment, particularly his better-known rival Gabriel Garcia Marquez). Yet when Vallejo focuses on the never-ending civil war that continues to destroy his country, he reveals the depth of his intellectual powers in a blistering yet eloquent condemnation of violence as a primary root of societal evil (Vallejo's anger at human society is in marked contrast to his passion for animal rights—scenes with his beloved dog offer a genuinely touching glimpse of compassion and humanity largely absent from the writer's commentary on his fellow beings). While viewers familiar with Colombia's recent history and/or Vallejo's literary canon obviously stand to gain the most from this memorable profile, much of the material covered here is universal. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)