The film is a winner of the Berlin International Film Festival and the Biarritz Film Cinema Festival of Latin America. The film deals with the hardships of low income class families in Bogotá. The breach between rich and poor and their interactions in a highly stratified social system.
The Plot:
This Colombian ensemble comedy, scathingly examines violence and official corruption in the tumultuous Latin American country. The story is told in flashback. In Colombia there is a law that states if an abandoned estate is occupied by squatters for a certain period of time, the land becomes theirs by default (at the turn of the century, many wealthy landowners left their farms as the country became urbanized).
The law becomes the basis of conflict when the original owners of the 48 room mansion the Olive House, aka "The Coop" by the squatters, come to reclaim it. The squatters there resist. A lawyer delays the eviction. Meanwhile a former theatrical stage manager devises an ingenious plot. The tenants, using pulleys and levers, take apart the house leaving only the facade. As they work, the personal quirks of each squatter and his or her relationship with the others are revealed.