On April 9, 1948, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a popular political leader, was assassinated and Colombia entered a murderous period, "La Violencia," tantamount to an undeclared civil war in which two hundred thousand died. Many were executed by "parajos" (birds of prey), of whom the most notorious and feared was "the Condor," who was, in reality, an ordinary man and a banal asthmatic. In this chilling yet dispassionate account of political murder as everyday happenstance-cold, efficient and ruthless-death is an unannounced visit from Leon Maria Lozano, a petit bourgeois and virtually anonymous family man of strong religious convictions. Restrained, understated and razor sharp, Cóndores no entierran todos los días is also a portrait of a town, standing for the nation, which is gripped by homicidal mania, and where every second neighbor, whether a liberal or a conservative, is likely to be a victim. Francisco Norden is also the director of what is perhaps Colombia's most celebrated film, Camilo-The Guerrilla Priest. --Paul Lenti