The story told in this documentary could undoubtedly serve as a script for a high-budget fictional film. It is set in the 1990s, in the Colombian city of Cali, with the OJ Simpson trial piped in by CNN in the background. Just a year earlier, Pablo Escobar was killed, and people die every day as cartels settle scores in the streets. Fearing for the safety of his family, Tom Hargrove, an American journalist and NGO employee, decides to leave the country with his wife. Hargrove won't make it to the airport, however, as he gets kidnapped by teenage FARC soldiers on his way to work. Consisting solely of archival recordings on Video8 tapes, Miracle Fishing is a remarkable testimony to that age and the steadfastness of a family that had to learn overnight to negotiate with kidnappers demanding a $6 million ransom.

Tadeusz Strączek