The Strategy of the Snail (1993) is a Colombian film directed by Sergio Cabrera and written by Humberto Dorado. It is considered by many critics to be the finest film in Colombian cinema, and has won awards at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the Biarritz Latin American Film Festival.
Based on a story by Ramón Jimeno, the film tells the story of a community of residents in a building known as La Casa Uribe who face eviction in an impoverished area of central Bogotá. After fighting the landlord through legal channels, a wealthy businessman with plans to redevelop the building, the community realises they will not be able to stay. They ask the judge for more time to collect their belongings, clean up and ‘leave the house painted’, but in reality they are constructing a giant wooden crane inside the building to move the interior of the house to another location, deceiving both the landlord and the judge.
The Snail Strategy portrays the serious consequences for people’s lives of housing being treated as a financial asset rather than a basic right. Property speculation and the lack of social policies are making it impossible, in Colombia and across the world, to live in cities, turning them into tourist resorts, into empty, soulless shells.
The film depicts the diverse realities of Colombian society through a wide range of characters spanning the entire political spectrum, characters and situations that remain highly relevant today. It also shows how social organisation can stand up to economic and state power, and that the dignity of peoples and communities is a value worth fighting for.