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THE SMILING LOMBANA

By Daniela ABAD LOMBANA

Family - Completed 2018

What seemed like a promising young artist, Tito Lombana, and the romance with an intelligent Italian liberal, begins to drape itself in shadows.

Festivals
& Awards

FICCI Cartagena 2018

Opening film

Toulouse (ARCALT) 2019

Audience Award

San Sebastian FF 2023

Co-production Forum - Director's Previous Works

- Year of production
- 2018
- Genres
- Family, Thriller, Documentary
- Countries
- COLOMBIA
- Languages
- SPANISH, ENGLISH, ITALIAN
- Duration
- 87 mn
- Director(s)
- Daniela ABAD LOMBANA
- Producer(s)
- Miguel SALAZAR (Producciones La Esperanza)
- Synopsis
- What little is known about Tito Lombana is not enough to figure out who he was. It is well known he was a Caribbean artist of humble origin, who sculpted Cartagena de Indias’ most emblematic monument: The Old Shoes. This young artist of great talent, who enjoyed certain fame and prestige, suddenly abandoned art, broke ties with his family, and fell into oblivion.
  The documentary’s director and granddaughter of Lombana only saw her grandfather once in her life, shortly before his death. Why did her family always hide her grandfather? What secret lay behind his smile that led him to become the family’s taboo?
  The film tries to unravel the mystery of this enigmatic character and does its best to understand the quirky, amoral, but refined and cheerful man, who produced a rupture that has yet to heal. The story of Lombana, a love and heartbreak tale, is illuminated and confused with the complex history of Colombia at the end of the last century.