• ACADEMY AWARD®

    COLOMBIA'S SUBMISSION FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
  • GOYA AWARDS®

    Best Iberoamerican Film
  • Platino Award for Iberoamerican Cinema

    Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor
  • Cannes Film Festival

  • Havana Film Festival New York

    Best Film
  • San Sebastian Int'l Film Festival

Spanish with English subtitles

With Javier Cámara, Nicolás Reyes Cano, Juan Pablo Urrego

Based on the legendary book Oblivion: A Memoir by the Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, and directed by Academy Award® winning director Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque), the film tells of the life of the prominent doctor and human rights activist, Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara), a father who is concerned about both his children and children from less favored classes.

After a devastating loss in the family, Héctor gives himself to the greater cause of public health programs for the poor in Medellín to the consternation of the city’s authorities. The film straddles two eras: Faciolince’s adolescence in Medellín in the 1970s, and his young adulthood in the ’80s up until 1987 when his father was assassinated.

Press

“This is a wonderfully sympathetic, deeply felt and tenderly funny family drama with a novelistic attention to details – a little like Alfonso Cuáron’s Roma, about growing up in a similar era in Mexico City. Cámara thoroughly inhabits the figure of Gómez: unselfconsciously inspiring and lovable.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The film strikes a similarly nostalgic note to Belle Époque, but focuses on familial love. Memories of My Father is a vivid portrait of a smart, principled, kind man...making it another topical Oscar contender.” – Anna Smith, Deadline

“In the Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba’s treacly melodrama, Memories of My Father, the titular memories are mostly positive — and often unabashedly reverential.” – Beatrice Loayza, New York Times

“There's a relaxed warmth to the, largely, lowkey events, that encourages us to cosy up to the family, with Camara injecting a twinkly impishness at just the right moments.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye For Film

About the Director
Fernando Trueba was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1955. Since making his directing debut with Opera prima in 1980, this director and screenwriter has made a further 15 award-winning films. Belle Époque won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film as well as nine Goyas; his animated film Chico & Rita was also nominated for an Academy Award®. His films have screened frequently at the Berlinale: he won a Silver Bear in 1987 for El año de las luces, and Belle Époque and La niña de tus ojos also screened in the competition. He has so far won two Grammys and five Latin Grammys for his work as a music producer.
Notes on Film

“When I first read Oblivion. A Memoir, I was deeply affected, something that probably happened to the thousands of readers around the world who have already made this book a classic of its time. Over the years, I have bought the book numerous times, in different countries, in different languages (French, Portuguese, English) to give it to very dear friends.”

– Fernando Trueba, Director