‘Noviembre’ Review: Tomás Corredor’s Debut Viserally Reflects on One of Colombia’s Darkest Moments of Modern History
Courtesy of TIFF
When standing in Bogotá’s Bolívar Square, one building stands out like a sore thumb amidst the predominantly Spanish colonial architecture: the Palace of Justice. Built in the 1960s after its predecessor was burnt down during civil unrest two decades before, the Palace of Justice serves as a brutalist behemoth overlooking the massive square, an eerie model of power towering over the civilian passerby.
For his feature film debut, Noviembre, which world premieres in the Discovery section at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Bogotá native Tomás Corredor concentrates on the Palace of Justice’s –and one of Colombia’s– most traumatizing historical events, the building’s November 1985 siege by the M-19 Leftist group and the tremendously violent military retaliation that followed. Merging archival footage with a frenetic, claustrophobic approach, Corredor’s debut intercommunicates with the event’s convoluted national remembrances and the ways they continue to ripple through the country today.
Formed in response to the results of Colombia’s 1970 presidential elections, with an ideology based on revolutionary nationalism and democratic referendums, the M-19 launched a siege on the country’s Palace of Justice on November 6, 1985, which is precisely where the action of Noviembre kicks off. We are introduced to most of the film’s key players in its unsettling first moments, which find M-19 members corralling the building’s workers– a combination of court officials, magistrates, and service staff– into one of the Palace’s marble-walled bathrooms to be held as hostages after the insurgent group has infiltrated and secured the building’s exits. Leaning on this narrative device, all seventy-three minutes of Noviembre take place within the walls of the restroom, except for the occasional intercut of unsettling archival footage of the military’s attempts to infiltrate the palace, by whatever means possible.
Within the panicked confines of this lavatory, the film’s camera most closely follows real-life M-19 revolutionary Clara Helena (Natalia Reyes), a young woman who finds herself at the crossroads of her devoted mission and caring for the injured hostages left in a powerless position. Clara looks to the aid of her M-19 leaders, increasingly doubting their abilities to negotiate their organization’s terms with the indifferent President as the military rocks the foundations of the palace with explosives and artillery. As the hours pass, Clara and her group’s mission becomes increasingly disheveled as the walls around them begin to crumble quite literally.
Through its frenzied visual and audio design, Noviembre takes its audiences directly into the eye of the storm as it recreates the storming of Bogotá’s Palace of Justice. Sharing director-of-photography credits, Carlos Rossini (The Chambermaid, 2018) and Nur Rubio employ shaky handheld camera work, favoring tight close-ups of faces and bodies within the cage-like space of their shooting location. This methodology effectively captures the violent chaos of the real event with alarming immediacy. Intermixed with or often overlayed above confused shouts or desperate orders, the movie’s sound design flaunts an almost constant symphony of gunshots and explosions that grow nearer and nearer to the bathroom where the hostages are held as Noviembre hurtles toward its finale.
Corredor remains steadfastly loyal to working within the confines of Noviembre’s taut narrative device as its action unfolds in a single room, but this decision ultimately feels limiting as the movie progresses. Dropped right away into this scene of brutal turmoil, disorientation reigns supreme, restricting the film’s storyline to one with little effective build-up, while Noviembre’s tension remains heightened to one hundred percent throughout much of its runtime. Corredor’s choices work successfully in capturing such a distressing juncture in Colombian history; however, the lack of narrative development or exposition provides less opportunity for unfamiliar audiences to grasp the complexity of the situation the director wishes to portray.
Through Noviembre’s point of view, Corredor powerfully honors the real victims of the siege of the Palace of Justice: the everyday working class, as the movie accentuates through the innocent cleaning crew and staff members held hostage. Throughout Colombia’s political instability of the mid to late 20th century and beyond, it has commonly been this sector of society that has been most traumatized by the continuous fighting between the Left and Right, corrupt political/military powers, and extremist rebel groups. This situation still impacts the national memory and zeitgeist of the country to this day. While Corredor’s debut effort may have its structural flaws, Noviembre ultimately proves to be a robust reflection on one of Colombia’s darkest moments of modern history.
3.5/5
Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Norway | 2025 | 78m | Spanish
‘Noviembre’ made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 6.