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"Sins of My Father" Complex Story of Growing up with Colombia's Most Notorious Drug Lord
Santo Domingo, November 18, 2010

 Pablo Escobar, the most wanted man in the world for a time, was gunned down in Medellín in 1993 after the military tracked him by tracing his last desperate phone call to his family. Following his death, Escobar’s widow, young daughter and 16-year old son fled the country beginning a long odyssey of hiding and moving from country to country. Young Pablo changed his name to Sebastian Marroquin, hoping his new identity would elp him escape his father's violent legacy.

Film Festival Volunteers Meet at FUNGLODESeveral years ago, Sebastian decided to tell his own and his father’s story with the help of Argentine filmmaker Nicolas Entel. Sebastian chose to work with Entel because he said that many other filmmakers who approached him were interested in making a “Scarface” type rendition of the Escobar story, “without the message I wanted to send.”

“I wanted to acknowledge the violence and the devastation it had wreaked on our country but in such a way that would help us heal some of the wounds,” said Sebastian.  “It is about reconciliation and peace, not just for me but for all of Colombia.”

Sebastian sent a letter to the sons of two of his father’s hundreds of victims asking for a meeting. When they finally get together, Sebastian asks the men, sons of Colombian politicians murdered in the 1980s, for forgiveness. At this point the film is no longer a retelling of the past but indeed history in the making.

Film Festival Volunteers Meet at FUNGLODESpeaking to the audience at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) after the screening, Sebastian Marroquin was asked why he chose, after all these years of anonymity, to come forward with his story.

“If you disguise or hide this harsh story that Colombians have had to live through, you run the risk of making the same mistakes again. I also wanted to reach out to people who think drug trafficking is a glamorous lifestyle and tell them they could not be more wrong.”

“Sins of My Father” screened at the UASD as part of the 4th Dominican Republic Global Film Festival whose slogan is “Global Issues, Personal Stories”


See more photos on our Photo Gallery under Sins of my Father, Nov. 18 >