“Punishment Park” is a highly controversial and potentially very frightening film about the violent suppression of political and social activists in the United States. Groups consisting primarily of young adults are brought before a sentencing board to explain their beliefs and actions. They have already been deemed guilty of threatening national security, albeit without a proper trial. At the end of the process they are given the option to serve their lengthy penal sentence or to take part in the Punishment Park ‘course’.

This Herculean trial involves a trek through 53 miles of parched Californian desert and mountainous landscape; they are allowed no food or drink other than the possibility of a water stop if they reach the half-way point. In pursuit are vehicle-bound law enforcement teams who must give the defendants a two-hour head start. If the activists are caught or fail to reach their goal (an American flag) within three days, they must serve their jail sentence. If they resist, they are threatened with violent suppression by the heavily armed enforcers.

Flashback to 1992, and the country of Columbia. Nine-year old Cataleva witnesses her parents being murdered. Using some excellently honed gymnastic skills and an already-developing bad attitude, she escapes the massacre. Taking refuge in the USA with Emilio, her gangster uncle, we fast-forward 15 years later, where Cataleva now works for him as a ‘hit woman’. She draws an orchid drawn on the chest of her victims as a calling card – hoping this message will be picked up by the killers of her parents.

Zoe Saldana, who as we all should know is Uhura in JJ Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek, is getting plenty of lead rolls these days.  “The Losers” was a good ensemble piece, playing Neytini in “Avatar”, but there’s no doubt that “Colombiana” is designed to be her starring vehicle. And we had three copies of the DVD to give away in a competition, in celebration of it being one of the first titles to be reviewed on Cult TV’s first broadcast television series – Behind The Sofa.