When Tanja Nijmeijer joined the FARC in 2003, she was just 25 years of age. She believed that only through an armed, social revolution could you change the lives of the people of Colombia for the better, and she disappeared into the jungles of Colombia to act upon those beliefs.
It is clear to most that the original purpose of the FARC has changed with time. To most, their revolution seems today to be more about maintaining their own power and control over the population – by any means possible – then it is about ideas, ideology, or social progress.
Or as Tanja herself says in her journal (found after a skirmish with Government forces in 2009) “what would be the difference anymore between what they do – and what we would do – even if we did take power.”
“Searching for Tanja” follows her path from the past – through the present – and into the future, as we explore the meaning of the conflict through the eyes of those both involved, and affected by the war.
To look for Tanja is to search not only for the woman herself, but to look beneath an armed conflict that has lasted for over half a century for the raw origin and essence of what the Colombian revolution has been all about – and to compare that vision to the raw reality that today exists on the ground – always asking the same questions about the meaning of the struggle that Tanja asked of herself – questions that may have ultimately led to her permanent disappearance.
©mediagroup November, 2010