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The Silence of Others

A film by Almudena Carracedo & Robert Bahar

The Silence of Others still

SPAIN / U.S.A, 2018, 96 min, DCP, in Spanish with English Subtitles

Filmed over six years, The Silence of Others reveals the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, as they organize a groundbreaking international lawsuit and fight a “pact of forgetting” around the crimes they suffered. A powerful and poetic cautionary tale about fascism, and the dangers of forgetting the past. 

The Silence of Others offers a cinematic portrait of the first attempt in history to prosecute crimes of Franco’s 40-year dictatorship in Spain (1939-1975), whose perpetrators have enjoyed impunity for decades due to a 1977 amnesty law. It brings to light a painful past that Spain is reluctant to face, even today, decades after the dictator’s death.

Filmed with intimate access over six years, the story unfolds on two continents: in Spain, where survivors and human rights lawyers are building a case that Spanish courts refuse to admit, and in Argentina, where a judge has taken it on using the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows foreign courts to investigate crimes against humanity if the country where they occurred refuses to do so.

Press

A moving reminder of the harm that comes from denying the truth of crimes done by those in power

Jasmyne Keimig, The Stranger

No end, worthy or otherwise, justifies these brutal means against one’s own

Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader

The Silence of Others makes it shockingly clear how little things have changed in Spain since 1975

John Seal, Berkeley Side

A stirring mosaic of citizen efforts to bring truth to light

A stirring doc about Franco-era survivors Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner

A necessary puncturing of the silence surrounding the issue.

Gives voice to the past Juan Fueyo-Gomez, The Stanford Daily

An object lesson for Americans against letting authoritarians act without consequences for their actions

Broke-Ass Stuart

one of the most socio-historically significant European documentaries of recent years

Long Walk to Freedom Michael Sandlin, Film Int

Necessary documentary about Spain's ongoing fascist history

James Van Maanen, Trust Movies

Exceptionally moving… In a style evocative of the best of Patricio Guzmán… this film is a milestone in recovery of a past that is not over—and, to invoke Faulkner, not even past

IDA Documentary Magazine

A stirring documentary… a very necessary story, delivered with rigor and conviction

Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter

This courageous, moving, lithe, necessary and eye-opening documentary dares to demand the truth

Alfonso Rivera, Cineuropa

Unfolding with all the force of a classic political thriller by Costa-Gavras or Francesco Rosi

Spanish citizens attempt to seek justice for atrocities carried out by General Franco’s regime Screen Daily