Shot in one, continuous take, PVC-1 is inspired by the true story of an innocent woman's struggle for survival after she is fitted with a collar bomb.
In Colombia, a farming family is a victim of an unusual act of violence. A criminal family, hoping for a 15 million pesos ransom, is planning to place a collar bomb on the father. But plans change, and it's the mother who bears the bomb and is now trapped in this physical and mental nightmare from which she must free herself.
In a nonstop sequence of film, we follow the harrowing race against all odds, by car, on foot, by rail, then across a river, and into the small near empty pueblo, to meet up with the bomb squad: a single man whom it's seems his only tool is his faith.
The Policia National's bomb man gets to working on her, but it's a real challenge with only a candle to heat the small lunch knife blade. Then come the military men, with their pomp and big words, then the ambulance, sirens blaring, then the priest, and the passers by. Everyone staring at the unfolding events, from behind the yellow tape.
The mother and the bomb man try to pass time with conversation about family and love, but it's very distracting. The heating and cutting continues on furiously, and then we see the bomb man's face change, he is up against more than he thought.
It's a chemical bomb, and some fumes are released and sets them both coughing and gasping for air. She falls and stops breathing, but the ambulance attendants are there to save this dying woman. The bomb man continues to work on the chemical detonator, that he must remove from the plastic, which he accomplishes. But that is only part of the task, there is work left to be done.