The Silence of Others: A conversation with the filmmakers

Abstract

The Silence of Others comes back to a past that doesn’t pass: how the Franco dictatorship (1936–1975) has shaped Spain and how the period that followed, the “transition,” has led to a conflicting collective memory by silencing the victims. Seven years in the making, The Silence of Others, Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s documentary, follows an unfolding lawsuit launched by a group of victims and survivors determined to seek justice. Unable to prosecute their crimes in Spain, they decided to turn to Argentina with the hope that a judge could apply the principle of universal jurisdiction to open an investigation. Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar agreed to talk to Violence about their film and its reception in Spain and abroad, and about how art could pave the way to exiting violence.