More than 30,000 people have been killed over the last ten years in Colombia’s bloody civil war, in which left-wing guerrillas continue to fight against the government and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups.

The 40-year-old conflict has slowly spread from the jungles to cities such as Medellín—where urban gangs aligned themselves either with guerrillas or paramilitary groups—and transformed the national conflict into a brutal turf war, pitting adjacent barrios against each other. LA SIERRA explores a year in the life of one such barrio, the hillside community of La Sierra, through the eyes of three of its young residents.

Edisón Florez, age 22, with two of his girlfriends Cielo Muñoz, age 17, visits the grave of her husband Jesús Martinez, age 19, demonstrates his shooting skills

Twenty-two-year-old Edison, A.K.A. “The Doll,” is the local commander of the neighborhood-controlling Bloque Metro paramilitary group, the de facto mayor of the barrio and a ladies' man, with six children by six different young mothers. Edison, intelligent and charismatic, is an admitted killer, excited by a life of violence. He shares his dreams for himself, his children and his country—until he pays the ultimate price for his role as a paramilitary.

Cielo, a child-like 17-year-old mother and widow, moved to La Sierra from the countryside after guerrillas murdered her brother and father. Now, she is devoted to a new boyfriend, a jailed paramilitary, and struggles to earn enough money for her and her son. To avoid taking a job in Medellín’s red-light district, Cielo sells candy on buses downtown.

Jesús, a 19-year-old mid-level paramilitary missing a hand from a grenade accident, claims to be ready for death, yet can’t help hoping for more out of life than his daily indulgence in marijuana and cocaine. His no-future fatalism is the defining attitude in his neighborhood. As the year of filming in La Sierra comes to an end, the paramilitaries begin a government-sponsored disarmament, and Jesús lets himself dream of a life without war, a life with a future.

Filmmakers Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez achieve an astonishing proximity to this world, taking us into the hills with the paramilitaries, inside homes, where worried parents and girlfriends tend to the young men’s babies, trying not to think of the inevitable, and into the jailhouse, where the women of La Sierra visit their husbands, brothers and boyfriends.

Over the course of a year, Edison, Cielo, Jesús and their families and friends undergo profound changes before the camera—experiencing victory, despair, death, love and hope. The result is a frank portrayal that includes not only startling violence, but also intimate moments of love and tenderness, showing the everyday life that amazingly manages to co-exist in a state of constant uncertainty.

Read the filmmaker Q&A >>

Learn more about Colombia's rebels >>