Mailin, a 37 year old single mother, wakes up in a dreamlike forest. And so, she begins the narration of a fairytale that gradually reveals to be a metaphor of her childhood. This story opens to Mailin’s past and present, while the trial against the priest Carlos José, who abused her for 15 years, unfolds. A fate suffered by other 121 women, whose cases Justice has declared to be prescribed. Through her voice, Mailin speaks in defense of all the others who cannot. Despite the pressure she manages to put her anguish aside for Ona, her 5-year-old daughter, who knows nothing about the process she’s going through.
Mailin wears her brightest smile, while crumbling within, as she goes back in time and tries to remember what she went through during her childhood; memories fragmented by trauma, images that break and freeze. And in the exercise of remembering, the three women of the family—Mailin, her sister Michelle, and her mother Monica—unearth words unsaid. Michelle recalls how this charismatic man swiftly became “ano ther member of the family” while Monica reflects on Mailin’s depression and suicidal thoughts from a very young age.
A story of guilt emerges as a family oppressed by silence blames themselves for not seeing what was happening. And although Mailin has broken her silence to change this narrative, and protect her daughter and other children from Carlos José, she faces a wall of corruption that structures the Justice System.
In 2021, her film CRIATURA won the Pardino d’Oro at the Locarno Film Festival and was selected in more than 100 festivals including Sitges, Fantasia, MIFF, and Gouna. The following year, in 2022, her short film The Spiral was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also selected by MoMA for New Directors/New Films, as well as by the Hong Kong Inter national Film Festival, IDFA, and others.
Her project Mailin received the main postproduction awards at Visions du Réel, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, and the Guadalajara Film Festival, and had its World Premiere in the International Competition at IDFA 2025.
In 2024 and 2025, her immersive video installation CORTEX was echo united at the MEP Museum (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) in Paris, a landmark for contemporary photographic art. It also won the Fondo Enlace / Orillas Nuevas, supported by the Institut français d'Art gentine in collaboration with Fundación Williams and Fundación Medifé. As a 2025 Berlinale Talent, Silvia is currently developing FAUCES, a project selected by TorinoFilmLab, “L’Atelier” Cannes, la Cité Internationale des Arts – Paris, and winner of the Focus COPRO’ at Cannes.
