*REPOST* "The Silence of Others"

Unbeknownst to much of the world, in Spain today, torture victims live just blocks from their notorious police torturers, who walk free every day. Tens of thousands of parents continue to search for their children who were likely stolen at birth. And families desperate to recover their loved ones’ bodies from thousands of mass graves across Spain are blocked by their own government from doing so.

The Silence of Others reveals the struggle of victims of these, and other crimes, from General 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. And it tells the story of how victims and their descendants are fighting back, seeking justice more than 7,000 miles away from home.

Over six years, Emmy-winning filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar follow a movement that begins in someone’s kitchen and evolves to bring together hundreds of victims and their descendants, who break Spain’s “pact of silence” to join an international lawsuit to prosecute these crimes.

Introduction & Post-screening discussion with Dr. Elisabeth Arevalo-Guerrero

This event is organized by the MLLI Spanish Film Festival.

Image description: An elderly woman with white hair and wearing a black dress sits on the ground alongside a road. She is holding a cane. Behind her is a guardrail with a bouquet of flowers tied to it.