With My Heart in Yambo

In 1988, when director María Fernanda Restrepo was only 10 years old, her life changed in the cruelest of ways: her two brothers—then 14 and 17—vanished without a trace. Only later did the family learn that the boys had been illegally detained, tortured, and murdered by the Ecuadorean police. Now, decades later, with her brothers’ remains still missing, Restrepo embarks on the painful journey of recounting her family’s story. In the process, she comes face to face with the suspects, and documents yet one more search in Lake Yambo, where the boys’ bodies were dumped. “Giving up is the only way to lose a battle,” says Restrepo’s father, still asking for clues and protesting in Quito’s Presidential Palace Square every Wednesday against the lack of answers. The film portrays one of the darkest political episodes in Ecuador and provides an insider’s look to the recent history of this country. — HotDocs