Tanja - Up in Arms

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What drives a young, middle-class Dutch woman to join a revolutionary struggle far from home?

In the early 2000s, 19-year-old Tanja left the Netherlands to work as an au pair in Colombia. There, she was confronted with political turmoil and, horrified by the injustice, joined FARC, the world’s largest guerrilla army. The film traces her transformation from an idealist to a key FARC member involved in high-stakes operations and later in peace negotiations that ended Latin America’s longest civil war.

Tanja’s diaries, discovered in a 2007 raid, reveal her internal struggles and dissatisfaction with jungle life, contrasting with her later public defiance. Now living in Colombia under an Interpol arrest warrant, her family reunion remains impossible. The documentary questions gender biases in media portrayals of female revolutionaries, offering a gripping narrative against the backdrop of Colombia’s conflict.

“What makes a nice, young middle-class Dutch woman want to join a revolutionary struggle thousands of miles from home? That is one of the questions asked in Marcel Mettelsiefen’s probing new feature documentary.” — Geoffrey Macnab, BUsiness Doc Europe

“The documentary features some striking new interview material with its main protagonist.” – Geoffrey Macnab, BUSINESS DOC EUROPE

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Main credits

Mettelsiefen, Marcel (film director)
Stoltz, Oliver (film producer)
Nijmeijer, Tanja (on-screen participant)

Other credits

Cinematography, Marcel Mettelsiefen, Sofia Oggioni Hatty; editing, Stephen Ellis; music, Johannes Repka.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

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