top of page

LIFE IS SACRED

by Andreas Dalsgaard

SYNOPSIS

Violence is a fact of everyday life in Colombia, where the drug cartels have kept the country in an armed conflict for decades, and where almost all families have lost a loved one. But the unorthodox presidential candidate Antanas Mockus does all he can to reverse the vicious circle with an imaginative and positive election campaign. And he brings experience with him. As mayor of Bogotá, and dressed in a Superman costume and with an indomitable trust in the good of his fellow citizens, he overcame both towering crime rates, unruly students and people's bad traffic habits. But his idealism is both his strength and his weakness in a corrupt political system, where his opponent plays a dirty game, and where the people have lost faith in being able to make a difference. Mockus is helped by the 22-year-old activist Katherine, who herself has lost her father in the bitter conflict. Now this has to end. Andreas Dalsgaard, who previously portrayed Mockus in the film 'Bogotá Change', has followed Mockus' socially innovative campaign to reverse the negative trend. But can good ideas and an idealistic drive alone change an entire political culture, where violence is an institutionalized part of everyday life? An inspiring man, and an inspiring story, whose points are relevant far beyond Colombia's borders.

DETAILS

80 mins

2014

Denmark

Spanish

TRAILER

OfficialSelection2020_WHITE-1024x1024.png

CREDITS

Director: Andreas Dalsgaard

Co-directors: Nicolas Nørgaard Staffolani, Viviana Gómez Echeverry

Producers: Signe Byrge Sørensen & Anne Köhncke - Final Cut for Real

Co-producers: Anita Rehoff Larsen & Tone Grøttjord Glenne - Sant & Usant

Co-producers: John Keville & Conor Barry - Savage Productions

Co-producers: Andreas Dalsgaard & Sune Lolk - Elk Film

Cinematography: Ross McDonnell, Viviana Gómez Echeverry, Andreas Dalsgaard

Sound recording: Oscar Mendez ADSC

Composer: Kristian Eidnes Andersen

Editors: Helge Billing NFK, Søren Ebbe, Nicolas Servide Staffolani & Estephan Wagner

BIOGRAPHY

DIRECTOR - ANDREAS DALSGAARD

Andreas M. Dalsgaard graduated from the National Film School of Denmark as a fiction film director in 2009. He has a degree in Visual Anthropology from Université Denis Diderot Paris VII in 2004 and a BA in Anthropology from University of Århus 2003.

His first fiction film was the short COPENHAGEN (2009) which won first prize as the worlds best graduation film. AFGHAN MUSCLES (2007) was his first documentary, which became a festival hit and won the American Film Institute Grand Prix. CITIES ON SPEED - BOGOTÁ CHANGE (2009) premiered at IDFA, and has been shown in more than 20 countries. Many people who appear in LIFE IS SACRED (2014) were also featured in this film, which focus on the Antanas Mockus work as Mayor of Bogota. TRAVELLING WITH MR. T (2012) is an experimental hybrid feature doc which premiered at Copenhagen Dox. Feature documentary THE HUMAN SCALE (2013) premiered in early 2013 to critical applause and a worldwide cinema release and festival tour.

Andreas Dalsgaards work has a strong focus on issues of social and cultural change, and is based on his background as an anthropologist.

PRODUCER - SIGNE BYRGE SORENSEN

Signe Byrge Sørensen is a three-time Oscar® nominee for producing The Act of Killing (2012), The Look of Silence (2014) and Flee (2021). She was nominated for the Producers Guild Award in 2016 for The Look of Silence and 2021 for Flee, and won or was nominated for Cinema Eye Awards for the production of all these films. She has been a producer since 1998 and founded Final Cut for Real ApS in 2009. Other recent titles include President (2021) by Camilla Nielsson, Our Memory Belongs to Us (2021) by Rami Farah, and Songs of Repression by Marianne Hougen-Moraga and Estephan Wagner (2020).

She holds an MA in International Development Studies and Communication Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark and attended EURODOC in 2003, EAVE in 2010 and ACE in 2018. In 2014, Sørensen received the Roos Award, given for an extraordinary contribution to Danish documentary film.

PRODUCER - ANNE KÖHNCKE

Anne Köhncke is a producer, born in Norway. She moved to Copenhagen 1997, where she in 2009 co-founded the production company Final Cut for Real together with Signe Byrge Sørensen. In 2019 Anne also started Final Cut for Real Norway. She lives between Malmö, Oslo and Marseille and works with Nordic and international directors. Prior to producing, she worked as Commissioning Editor of documentaries at DR2 and as Sales Executive at TV2 World, selling documentaries. She holds an MA in film from the University of Copenhagen, is an EAVE graduate and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Köhncke has produced several documentaries, such as Travelling with Mr. T (2012),  The Act of Killing (2012), which was nominated for an Oscar, as well as Life Is Sacred (2015) and Massakren i Dvor (2015), both nominated for the Danish Robert Award.

SELECT FESTIVALS

CPH:DOX 2014〡DOKUFEST KOSOVO 2015〡NEW YORK HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL 2015〡SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2015〡DOCS BARCELONA 2015〡MILLENNIUM DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY 2015〡VILNIUS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2015〡ONE WORLD PRAGUE 2015〡ISTANBUL FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT FILMS 2015

PRESS

"Fuses thematics with aesthetics... an alternately encouraging, disheartening and surprising narrative about ideals and reality."
- Politiken

bottom of page