The Silence of Others

José Galante cannot and will not accept that his torturer is living only a few metres away from him, unpunished. Maria Martín is fighting to ensure that her mother’s bones are exhumed from a mass grave and buried next to her father’s remains. However, an amnesty law passed by a large majority in the Spanish parliament in 1977 not only guaranteed the release of all political prisoners, but also prohibited prosecution of any of the crimes committed by Franco’s dictatorship. For this reason, many atrocities remain unsolved to this day. Over a period of six years, the filmmakers spoke to victims, relatives and human rights lawyers about their long-standing struggle to obtain admissions of guilt and the abolition of the amnesty law. Their film also describes how a movement that began in someone’s kitchen eventually succeeded in gaining sufficient awareness for suppressed injustice that an international trial was held, during which arrest warrants were issued against no fewer than twenty former perpetrators of Franco’s regime. This intelligently edited film suffused by symbolic visuals paints a picture of a still-divided society, torn between forgetting and coming to terms with its past.
by Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar USA / Spain 2018 Spanish 95’ Documentary form

Crew

Directors Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar
Cinematography Almudena Carracedo
Editing Kim Roberts, Ricardo Acosta
Music Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman
Sound Design Steve Miller
Sound Robert Bahar
Production Manager Rocío Cabrera
Executive Producers Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Justine Nagan, Chris White, Sally Jo Fifer, Sandie Viquez Pedlow
Producers Robert Bahar, Almudena Carracedo

World sales

Cinephil

Produced by

Semilla Verde Productions

Lucernam Films

Almudena Carracedo

Born in Madrid, Spain in 1972, she began her career in the USA where she directed and produced her debut film Made in L.A., a feature-length documentary which won an Emmy and received critical acclaim. In 2012 she returned to Spain to begin work on The Silence of Others.

Filmography

2003 Welcome, a Docu-Journey of Impressions; short film 2007 Made in L.A.; documentary 2018 The Silence of Others

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018

Robert Bahar

Born in Philadelphia, USA in 1975, he studied film at the University of Southern California. He a fellow of the non-profit organisation Creative Capital and a Sundance Documentary Fellow. As a filmmaker, producer and writer, he divides his time between Madrid and New York. He won an Emmy as producer of the documentary Made in L.A.

Filmography

1996 Laid to Waste; documentary 2007 Made in L.A.; documentary 2018 The Silence of Others

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018