Colombian Sebastian Marroquin had a childhood so rich it included real zoo animals, swimming pools, and miniature four-wheeled vehicles.All of it was built on his father’s business as head of the Medellin drug cartel, one of the most powerful in Columbia in the late 1970s and early 1980s.Mr. Marroquin’s father was Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, and Mr. Marroquin’s former name was Juan Pablo Escobar.He tells the story of his father in ‘Sins of My Father’, which has been widely shown and has appeared at The Sundance Film Festival and the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, among other places.It is a sincere film about family history and redemption. It poses the question: ‘Are we responsible for our parents’ actions?’.

I’m not the right person to explain my father’s actions, Mr. Marroquin says in the film. Every time I try, I make the mistake of believing that I am that one who has to answer for my father.Mr. Marroquin knew him as a loving father who indulged his every whim. I was a spoiled brat, Mr. Marroquin admitted.During the film, he played back a cassette tape of his father reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’, and then singing songs. Mr. Marroquin struggled to align this picture of his father, with the much darker person the world knew.Mr. Escobar’s fortune was built on trafficking cocaine world-wide. Just another day at the office for Mr. Escobar, once listed by Forbes Magazine as the seventh-richest man in the world, included blowing up buildings and planes, waging war with rival cartels, bribing officials and murdering hundreds of people.But he had a huge following in Colombia because he gave money to the poor. He was billed as a kind of ‘Robin Hood’. At one point he built homes for 5,000 people living in a trash dump.But when his power was threatened, he murdered several prominent Columbian politicians including presidential candidate Luis Galan in 1989 and Colombian Minister for Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984.Mr. Escobar eventually admitted his crimes, and was allowed to build his own prison.This turned out to be more of a luxury theme park, than the traditional view of a Colombian prison. He carried on his criminal activities from within and handled his own security. He promptly escaped when Colombian officials threatened to move him to a real prison.A world-wide manhunt followed and in 1993 he was caught and shot on a rooftop by the authorities after a phone call to his son was traced. In a radio broadcast shortly before the end of Mr. Escobar’s life, he referred to his son as the pacifist.So perhaps Mr. Marroquin, even as an eight-year-old, didn’t seem like a future drug lord to his father.But when Mr. Marroquin first heard that his father had been killed, his first reaction was to vow to personally kill who ever had killed his father. But minutes later, Mr. Marroquin recanted his words.In the film, Mr. Marroquin said he had two paths to choose from in life. If he’d chosen the path of revenge, he would have been following in his father’s footsteps and that would have led to certain death.Instead, Mr. Marroquin escaped with his mother to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Today he lives a peaceful life as an architect and industrial designer. What impresses the viewer, is Mr. Marroquin’s courage and honesty throughout the filming.He wrote to the sons of Galan and Bonilla asking for forgiveness and a meeting. Every day I wake up searching for peace, he wrote.Later, he travelled to Colombia to meet with them, something he has been terrified to do since he was a child.When he met with Galan’s sons he said: I want to look you in the eyes and say I am sorry. And he does so. It is a sincere moment.It’s Marroquin’s humanity that the viewer connects with, the very thing his father seemed to lack, for the most part. The viewer can’t help liking Marroquin, although the film never delves into his current personal life in any depth. Is he married, or with children? Why does his weight dramatically shoot up and down during the filming?There are times when the viewer doubts he is even looking at the same person, Marroquin sometimes looks so different from scene to scene.We never find out, but the film hints that perhaps he is stuck in the past, still grieving for his father.What is bizarre is the ease at which Galan’s sons seem to forgive him. They seem to have an almost: Oh, it was nothing. Don’t worry about it attitude.They have all grown up to be prominent on the Colombian political scene. One was lobbying for a debate on the legalisation of drugs, of all things.One of Galan’s son’s states: I have nothing to forgive, you are not Pablo Escobar. You aren’t responsible.True, but it’s almost a little too easy, and they come across as a fraction less than sincere. This documentary is worth seeing; The universsal themes in the film include love, hate, grief, guilt and redemption are compelling.‘