Falso Positivo

In the mid-2000s, three stories intertwine around Colombia’s so-called «false positives.»

Jeison (28) and his partner Angélica (21) travel through rural towns recruiting young men with the promise of becoming actors in the United States. At the same time, Zugar (24), a trans model and webcam performer, returns to her hometown to search for her brother Denis, who disappeared after accepting an offer to travel to the U.S. Meanwhile, Commander Montoya (50) organizes a celebration to honor his troops for their military successes in the war against the guerrillas.

The film was supported in 2026 and received 600 000 NOK. 

Jury Statement

Falso Positivo is a bold and unsettling film rooted in one of Colombia’s major human rights scandals, where civilians were killed and falsely presented as guerrilla fighters. Through Zugar’s search for her missing brother, the film looks at how state violence reaches those who are already pushed to the margins: poor young men, drug users, sex workers and queer and trans people. The film responds to this violent fiction with the language of the fantastic: a war criminal transformed into a mushroom, ghosts and disappearances, and a child born as a serpent. The result is an ambitious film about state violence, deception, and lives treated as expendable.