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.
The implications of the case are global, as Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy continues to be hailed as a model to this day. The case also marks an astonishing reversal, for it was Spain that pioneered universal jurisdiction to bring down former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, and yet now it is an Argentine judge who must bring Spain’s own past to light.
The Silence of Others tells the story of this groundbreaking international lawsuit through the voices of five survivors who have broken Spain’s “pact of silence” and become plaintiffs in the case, including victims of torture, parents of stolen children, and family members who are fighting to recover loved ones’ bodies from mass graves across Spain. Guiding this monumental effort are Carlos Slepoy, the human rights lawyer who co-led the case against Pinochet, and Ana Messuti, a philosopher of law.The case is making history: what started as a small, grassroots effort has yielded the first-ever arrest warrants for perpetrators, including torturers, cabinet ministers, and doctors implicated in cases of stolen children.
It has brought the nearly forgotten case to the front page of The New York Times and has stirred a flurry of international attention.
Through this dramatic, contemporary story, The Silence of Others speaks to universal questions of how societies transition from dictatorship to democracy and how individuals confront silence and fight for justice. What happens when a country is forced to reckon with its past after so many years of silence? Can justice be done after so long?CREW:
Director: Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar
Producer: Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Justine Nagan, Chris White, Sally Jo Fifer, Sandie Vizquez Pedlow, Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar
Cinematographer: Almudena Carracedo
Editor: Kim Roberts, A.C.E
, Ricardo Acosta, C.C.E
Sound: Steve Miller
Production
Semilla Verde Productions Ltd, Brooklyn, NY,
[email protected],
Lucernam Films SL, Madrid, Spain
Sales:
Cinephil Philippa Kowarsky,
[email protected],
Mobile: +972 544 961 114, www.cinephil.com
Awards
Best Feature Documentary — Goya Awards 2019 (Spain);
Panorama Audience Award — Berlin International Film Festival 2018;
Peace Film Prize — Berlin International Film Festival 2018;
Grand Jury Award — Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 (United Kingdom);
Best Documentary Feature — Platino Awards 2019 (Iberoamerica);
Best Feature Documentary — Forqué Award 2019 — (Spain),
Nº2 Audience Favorite — IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (Netherlands);
Top 10 Audience Favorite — Hot Docs, Canadian International Documentary Festival (Canada);
Special Mention of the Jury, Creative Documentary — Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Switzerland)
Director
Almudena Carracedo
Almudena Carracedo — born in Madrid, Spain, Almudena has developed her professional career in the US, where she directed and produced her debut film, the Emmy-winning feature documentary Made in L.A., which received critical acclaim.
She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Creative Capital Fellow, a Sundance Time Warner Documentary Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University. Prior to Made in L.A., she directed the short documentary Welcome, A Docu-Journey of Impressions, which won Silverdocs' Sterling Prize. In 2012 Almudena returned to Spain to begin work on The Silence of Others.Selected Filmography
The Silence of Others (2018),
Made in L.A.(2007), Welcome, a Docu-Journey of Impressions (2003) 
Director
Robert Bahar
Robert Bahar — born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Robert works between Madrid, Spain and Brooklyn, New York. He won an Emmy as producer/writer of the documentary Made in L.A., and also spearheaded a three-year impact campaign that brought the film to audiences around the world.
Prior to Made in L.A., he produced and directed the documentary Laid to Waste, produced the short documentary Meet Joe Gay, and line produced several independent films. Robert is a Creative Capital Fellow, a Sundance Documentary Fellow, and holds an MFA from USC’s School of Cinema-Television, which he attended on a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.Selected Filmography
The Silence of Others (2018), Made in L.A. (2007),
Meet Joe Gay (2000), Laid to Waste (1996) 
