Magdalena, a river that courses through the heart of Columbia, connects
a violent past with the country's uncertain present. British writer
Michael Jacobs struggles to reconcile his love for the land and its
people with the dangers that both still present.
Determined to eliminate modern conveniences from his journey, he begins
traversing the river by tugboat. He makes an exception for a cell phone
that maintains a sporadic signal at best, in efforts to keep in touch
with his mother suffering from deteriorating health. Jacobs cannot help
but notice the irony of his mother's dementia and his travels through
Colombian townships with the world's highest incidence of early-onset
Alzheimer's.
While navigating the mysterious river and unfamiliar territory--both
emotionally and geographically--Jacobs comes across Gabriel Garcia
Márquez, whose own faltering memory shows a growing obsession with the
Magdalena River of his youth. When Jacobs and his companions are
apprehended by FARC guerillas who turn out to be as quirky and affable
as they are intimidating, life begins to imitate the magical realism of
Márquez's signature works. Shortly after being released from captivity,
the FARC camp is bombed by the Colombian air force, leaving no likely
survivors among his oddly likeable captors.
Exploring themes of adventure, endings, and "the utter pointlessness of
it all," Jacobs can only forge onward in his reflection of the mystical
river.
