This film reminded me so much of "Z" one of my favorite films from almost 50 years ago. What a fantastic achievement over many years of production. Despite the subject matter, it's uplifting in the end
12 Reviews
Torture unaccounted
paul2001sw-17 December 2019
When a violent conflict has riven a country, should we seek to impose a winners' justice; or should we simply forgive and forget? In South Africa after Apartheid, a compromise was attempted: a "Truth and Reconcilliation Commission" offered amnesty to those accused of crimes, but only in exchange for full and public confession. In Spain, when those associated with Franco's dictatorship stepped back from power, they simply granted themselves full immunity for anything they may have done: the persistence, revealed in this film, of efforts to protect this law suggests they may have not stepped so far from power at all. Indeed, it's disappointing to see how strongly the contemporary centre-right party, which in theory has little to do with its Falangist predecessor, defends the rights of torturers and murderers, whereas the lives of their victims (and their relatives) continue to be consumed by what has happened to them. In general, I'm not a great belieiver in "justice" as an entity that can be delivered, but 'The Silence of Others' makes a strong case that, at the very least, the crimes of the regime should be counted and accounted for.
Let Sleeping Dogs Of War Lie...?
Lejink27 February 2022
I've lived in Spain for almost four years and am seeking to broaden my knowledge of its history, particularly its political and social history since the Spanish Civil War of 1936. Of course, the dictator Franco and his fellow Nationalists won the war and he then ruled the country until 1975 when the country moved, not without some difficulty (there was even an attempted right-wing coup in 1981) towards its current democratic status with the restoration of the constitutional monarchy. As part of that transitional process, a bill was introduced and almost unanimously passed by the new government, proposing the release of all political prisoners and importantly, for the purposes of this film, a complete amnesty for any crimes committed on both sides during the war and the succeeding decades of Franco's rule.
And here indeed is the crux of the film, should the perpetrators of torture, execution and mass burial in unmarked graves of political and / or military opponents, now stand trial for their acts or does the newly-christened "Politics Of Forgetting" wipe the slate clean for all such acts during the notoriously brutal war and by all accounts similarly repressive deeds overseen by those in power on dissenting citizens afterwards. We also learn in this documentary of another heinous official practice in which the state forcibly removed newborn babies of mothers deemed unsuitable for whatever reason to bring up their child, placing the infants with new families whose status and political leanings were somehow deemed more correct for their upbringing.
The film highlights a number of remarkable individuals fighting for what they see as retrospective justice. It begins with the story of a determined little old lady whose mother was murdered by the Republicans when was only a six year old child. The impact of being orphaned so young, together with the background circumstance, has clearly never left her and her anger and determination to obtain justice is palpable. Other stories are then presented before us, a man tortured terribly in his youth by an identified individual still alive and coincidentally living in the same street as him today, another elderly woman who wishes to repatriate and formally bury her father who was shot and killed with many others in a wholesale execution and thrown into an unmarked mass grave.
However right at the start of the film we see clips of interviews with the current Spanish King and two recent prime ministers each defending the Amnesty Law and urging the complainants to effectively forget and forgive the acts against them. They and presumably many others believe that this was the best course of action for Spain as a newly-restored democratic country to move on in the future but should the amnesty waive liability for the more horrific acts carried out by certain individuals and should they now be brought to book, even long decades later?
It's a very difficult question and one I've seen played out closer to home with a similar amnesty passed by the U. K. government in its Good Friday Peace Agreement to end the conflict in Northern Ireland although here the film draws parallels with South American countries like Chile, Peru and Argentina all similarly run by dictators and with similar tales of inhuman treatment of certain of its citizens.
I would have appreciated longer interviews with the defenders of the policy for balance sake but have to admit that my heart was with the various complainants here. By the end of the film they achieve small victories but only by taking their case to a sympathetic Argentinian judge. However, although we see the extremely moving exhumation of a war grave which gives balm to the surviving family members and official street names altered so as to not commemorate Franco and other prominent pro-Nationalist individuals of the time, still the identified living individuals who orchestrated and carried out so many horrendous crimes are protected by the law.
This documentary unavoidably left many questions unanswered in a matter which clearly still divides the country even now as there is clearly still a strong pro-Franco faction in Spain today. Nevertheless, while it was fascinating for me to learn the background to this controversial issue, by its end I know where my sympathies lay. Even in the heat of war, acts of genocide, barbarism and inhumanity must surely always be brought to book.
Today I watched a Russian tank deliberately run over a car being driven by a Ukrainian citizen in an indefensible act of cold-blooded murderous cruelty. That tank commander will likely get off scot-free no matter the outcome of the Russian invasion.
In my opinion though, not all is fair in war...
And here indeed is the crux of the film, should the perpetrators of torture, execution and mass burial in unmarked graves of political and / or military opponents, now stand trial for their acts or does the newly-christened "Politics Of Forgetting" wipe the slate clean for all such acts during the notoriously brutal war and by all accounts similarly repressive deeds overseen by those in power on dissenting citizens afterwards. We also learn in this documentary of another heinous official practice in which the state forcibly removed newborn babies of mothers deemed unsuitable for whatever reason to bring up their child, placing the infants with new families whose status and political leanings were somehow deemed more correct for their upbringing.
The film highlights a number of remarkable individuals fighting for what they see as retrospective justice. It begins with the story of a determined little old lady whose mother was murdered by the Republicans when was only a six year old child. The impact of being orphaned so young, together with the background circumstance, has clearly never left her and her anger and determination to obtain justice is palpable. Other stories are then presented before us, a man tortured terribly in his youth by an identified individual still alive and coincidentally living in the same street as him today, another elderly woman who wishes to repatriate and formally bury her father who was shot and killed with many others in a wholesale execution and thrown into an unmarked mass grave.
However right at the start of the film we see clips of interviews with the current Spanish King and two recent prime ministers each defending the Amnesty Law and urging the complainants to effectively forget and forgive the acts against them. They and presumably many others believe that this was the best course of action for Spain as a newly-restored democratic country to move on in the future but should the amnesty waive liability for the more horrific acts carried out by certain individuals and should they now be brought to book, even long decades later?
It's a very difficult question and one I've seen played out closer to home with a similar amnesty passed by the U. K. government in its Good Friday Peace Agreement to end the conflict in Northern Ireland although here the film draws parallels with South American countries like Chile, Peru and Argentina all similarly run by dictators and with similar tales of inhuman treatment of certain of its citizens.
I would have appreciated longer interviews with the defenders of the policy for balance sake but have to admit that my heart was with the various complainants here. By the end of the film they achieve small victories but only by taking their case to a sympathetic Argentinian judge. However, although we see the extremely moving exhumation of a war grave which gives balm to the surviving family members and official street names altered so as to not commemorate Franco and other prominent pro-Nationalist individuals of the time, still the identified living individuals who orchestrated and carried out so many horrendous crimes are protected by the law.
This documentary unavoidably left many questions unanswered in a matter which clearly still divides the country even now as there is clearly still a strong pro-Franco faction in Spain today. Nevertheless, while it was fascinating for me to learn the background to this controversial issue, by its end I know where my sympathies lay. Even in the heat of war, acts of genocide, barbarism and inhumanity must surely always be brought to book.
Today I watched a Russian tank deliberately run over a car being driven by a Ukrainian citizen in an indefensible act of cold-blooded murderous cruelty. That tank commander will likely get off scot-free no matter the outcome of the Russian invasion.
In my opinion though, not all is fair in war...
if you have a chance, watch this masterpiece!
ara_da13 April 2018
Every single person shown in this documentary wants one thing: justice- for themselves, their families, friends, loved ones, for the victims and survivors of the franco-dictatorship.
_
It's truly a masterpiece, a brave production, the selected scenes, the music, the slowly but rising number of the people joining the lawsuit during the years, the end of the documentary (a somewhat victory)... but it's still not the end for the people, it's still going on. The struggle truly continues.
Pare Lorentz award
tillygrey25 February 2019
I am proud to know this film won the award given in my father's name. It is exactly the kind of film he believed could bring into the light the dark moments in history. Even today Spain refuses to give justice to people who suffered under the Franco regieme. But the people of Spain dont give up.
A must see!
clin-psychologist28 April 2019
The best documentary of the decade
jendakout9 December 2018
One of the most sensible documentaries about the fight of a few victims of Franco's dictatorship for justice. I saw it in Barcelona where the director and one of the fighters were. At the end the audience stood up and applauded a lot. The documentary has a few strong emotional moments. Now I understand more why Spain has problems with this part of its history.
heartbreaking stories
SnoopyStyle7 August 2022
With Hitler's help, Franco was able to win the Spanish Civil War and would go on to rule the country for almost 40 years. After his death, the legislature overwhelmingly passes an Amnesty Law and those seeking justice are blocked. This is a compelling documentary. Spain's Fascist past has a direct connection to today's politics. The stories are heartbreaking. I almost suggest giving up on the legal system and putting all the testimonies/evidence into a time capsule for future generations. Their persistence is inspiring and it's wonderful that there is movement towards justice. That puts this over the top. It gives this movie a fairly happy ending.
Wanted More
AJ_McAninch23 August 2020
Good Introduction
caramia200212 July 2020
I very much liked this documentary while watching it. I have little knowledge of this issue (other than Franco being barely to the left of Hitler, his ally during WWII, with similar racial policies), as it has been forgotten or tried to be by almost everyone, esp the US, as Spain was a needed ally for a military base, and a handy anti-communist state (oh the terrible right wing regimes we have backed for that reason!). There was a lot of satire about Franco in the 70s, and then Juan Carlos after that, particularly by Sat Night Live, but other than that, not much info going around.
This is a very focused film, only about the lawsuit filed in 2010, and I appreciate that. It is very well done and doesn't pander to the viewer's sympathies. It is only near the end that the emotional intensity is raised. Now I'm ready to learn more about both sides. I see in the critical reviews, some predictably claiming that both sides did things, which is the usual defense of these things, as well as the accusation of "revenge" aimed at the victims or families of Franco's regime, as if that makes hundreds of thousands killed and tortured by Franco's (and following) regime ok. But my further research (don't look to Wikipedia, strangely lacking on this matter) will enlighten me. I will search for other docs on this matter and the history of the Spanish Civil War and following era.
As the families of murder victims know, there is little closure if the body is not found, or the murderer are not found or tried and/or punished. War crimes involve the addition of mass graves and that the families know exactly how their loved ones were jailed, tortured, and murdered. For their beliefs (not any better than someone being murdered for the change in their pockets). The real shame here is in the last grave shown and that Franco and his minions learned from the fate of their friends Hitler and the Nazis.
This is a very focused film, only about the lawsuit filed in 2010, and I appreciate that. It is very well done and doesn't pander to the viewer's sympathies. It is only near the end that the emotional intensity is raised. Now I'm ready to learn more about both sides. I see in the critical reviews, some predictably claiming that both sides did things, which is the usual defense of these things, as well as the accusation of "revenge" aimed at the victims or families of Franco's regime, as if that makes hundreds of thousands killed and tortured by Franco's (and following) regime ok. But my further research (don't look to Wikipedia, strangely lacking on this matter) will enlighten me. I will search for other docs on this matter and the history of the Spanish Civil War and following era.
As the families of murder victims know, there is little closure if the body is not found, or the murderer are not found or tried and/or punished. War crimes involve the addition of mass graves and that the families know exactly how their loved ones were jailed, tortured, and murdered. For their beliefs (not any better than someone being murdered for the change in their pockets). The real shame here is in the last grave shown and that Franco and his minions learned from the fate of their friends Hitler and the Nazis.
An excellent subject which would have deserved a better treatment
retrostandard-400795 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this documentary expecting a sensible and sensitive treatment of an ongoing historically issue. I only had half of that as I was presented with a tear-jerking, ideologically-motivated hitpiece that came off as desperately one-sided. Even the director seemed to acknowledge this when he gave us a whooping ten seconds of a pro-franquist activist whose comments were not even developed upon. In my opinion, the documentary would have also greatly benefited from providing the viewer with a little more background on the victims which would have made their interviews that much more substantial. Overall, it felt as if the genuinely informative quality of the film had been overshadowed by the director's attempt to turn the whole story into a giant sobfest, violins and all.
A bit mercenary
ShropshireLass1232 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I mean, please....... another witch hunt of Americanised film-making. They'll milk it forever, if they manage to get the tourists and expats to agree and take an interest which is unlikely. One of the people said they want their children to say "and that's where so and so was tortured" when passing by, so now they want to traumatise their children? Another made a direct comparison with Germany when this is a different cultural context, despite Franco's political idealistic connections with Hitler. It's not clear what else has happened regarding these survivors and this history, and I agree it should be taught in schools. All the well-groomed healthy-looking people in this film reveal some trauma, and they are right to pursue the fate of their friends and relatives, but it also ends up looking like a revenge scenario where they chase old men in the street for their past governmental crimes because of "justice" but no one says what justice should result. Some members of the public said it should be left behind, so not everyone thinks the same way. One reason for this amnesty I suspect is political because many other European countries colluded, including UK. In the end I think they just want to hang people, and to what end? Most of them are in the final years of life. There are other ways to do this, like writing about their experiences, making films about their experiences, etc. I personally don't believe in pursuing the perpetrators because there is an element of reverse-scapegoating at play which I think is unnecessary now and because I think everyone had a hand in these crimes whether active or inactive, directly or indirectly, which is how they managed to continue for so long. That covers many regimes. In the end I thought it was a very sanitised, very partial and uninteresting doc, a cinematic view of the participants up close, though it did give a necessary voice to the victims.
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