Soplo de vida, by the productive director Ospina, is at first sight a Colombian film noir. The story is about the young Golondrina, who is found dead in a cheap hotel in Bogota. The former policeman Emerson is, by chance, hired as private detective to investigate the crime. Without knowing the true identity of the victim, he reconstructs the puzzles in Golondrina’s life in the course of his investigation. He finds out that four men played an important role in her life: Martillo, a boxer who lost his last fight, the bullfighter José Luis, the corrupt cop Medardo and the blind lottery-ticket seller Mago. And he gradually finds out that his own life was also linked to the beautiful Golondrina. The director skilfully uses style elements from film noir: mysterious lighting, almost schematic secondary characters, the slow but sure revelation of an exciting plot. The setting looks like an almost mythical South America. At the same time, Soplo de vida is a subtle, yet unmistakable attack on the mentality of the Latin-American male – of whom little can be expected – and also on the social and political structure of Colombia.
