The Colombian government’s long-standing conflicts with paramilitary and guerilla groups have resulted in thousands of people being ‘forcibly disappeared’ since the mid-1960s. This grim reality has become all too familiar, but for the mothers of the missing, the pain never truly subsides. It transforms, but the wound remains open, a constant reminder of what has been lost.

Directed by Juan Miguel Gelacio and Esteban Hoyos García, ‘Five Years, Four Months’ is a poignant portrayal of a grieving mother’s unrelenting search for her son. The film’s understated yet effective filmmaking creates an all-encompassing feeling of alienation, drawing the viewer into the protagonist’s world.

The story centers around Martha Baquero, a fictional character based on the real stories of women who worked with the filmmakers on this project. Martha’s search for her son, Fabian, is a grueling and drawn-out process, involving long bus journeys and painstakingly digging into potential burial sites as part of nationwide exhumation projects.

The film’s aesthetic appears purely realist at first glance, but Gelacio and García use these scenes to evoke the sensorial and emotional landscape of Martha’s life. The inclusion of these narratively uneventful sequences, stitched together into a calm and steady rhythm, subtly emphasizes the in-between feeling that defines her existence.

As the camera stays close to Martha, focusing on her experience, it also brings out her loneliness and how closed-off she is to others. The meticulous sound design amplifies the sounds around her – animals, traffic, the wind – Martha is detached from the world, yet always hyper-aware of it, the way traumatized people can be numb and perpetually on their guard at the same time.

The filmmakers create tension so intense that it frequently borders on the horrific. So much so, in fact, that a handful of sequences showing Martha’s eerie dreams of naked, anonymous bodies in a dark forest not only fit seamlessly into the film – they actually provide a sense of release. Thoughtfully inserted at key moments in the narrative, these haunting images of shapes coming into focus in extreme slow-motion are a perfect extension of the film’s general mood of anxious yet eager anticipation.

All the elements in ‘Five Years, Four Months’ are in harmony; its hypnotic spell remains unbroken throughout. Crucial to this is the largely wordless performance from Jenny Nava as Martha, who appears in practically every scene. Although her character is inexpressive and, at first glance, unchanging, Nava plays her with an opaqueness that invites curiosity.

Early on in the film, Martha joins a dance therapy class for grieving mothers like her: They are many, with their own networks, taking care of one another. There, Martha can express her pain and reconnect with her body. But the rest of the time, for the rest of the world, life goes on. It is heartbreaking to hear Martha put a note of gaiety in her voice in ordinary conversations, for the benefit of her interlocutors, when her whole demeanor screams only sorrow.

As Martha follows the lead of a stranger who says she has been looking for her son for 24 years, the tension that so far has been ambient and diffuse turns vivid and concrete. Is Martha going to be the victim of a cruel and expensive scam? But even as she appears to enter a seedy and dangerous world of crime, Martha’s journey and her connection with Sandra seem to bring her a feeling of solace at last.

The film truly culminates before that ending, in a devastatingly beautiful scene where Martha talks about her son for the first time. As Gelacio and García cut to the lush nature around the two women, the ordinary beauty that surrounds them seems to vibrate with Fabian’s youthful enthusiasm and Martha’s endless love for him. From such overpowering emotion to a belief in benevolent ghosts, there is only a small step. Gelacio and García’s moving film helps us understand those who choose to take it.

‘Five Years, Four Months’ is a testament to the power of cinema to evoke the human experience. It is a film that will leave you breathless and questioning the very nature of hope and resilience. With its stunning cinematography, nuanced performances, and masterful direction, this film is an absolute must-watch.