Med Pedro Almodovár som executive producer har den spanske ‘The Silence of Others’ vundet et væld af priser og endnu flere hjerter for sin gribende, poetiske og humanistiske skildring af den lange rejse mod retfærdighed i et ungt demokrati, der fortsat er splittet. Over fyrre år efter Francos død kæmper efterkommerne af ofrene for det fascistiske regime stadig for et retsopgør med fortidens forbrydelser, og med dem, der begik dem og siden blev kollektivt frikendt. Og med en stille styrke skildrer filmen (der er optaget over hele seks år) hvordan det faktisk lykkes en folkebevægelse at ændre historiens gang.
Filmed with intimate access over six years, the story unfolds on two continents: in Spain, where survivors and human rights lawyers are building the case, and in Argentina, where a judge has taken it on using the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows courts to investigate grave crimes abroad, 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 to this day, and was recently even proposed as a model in Tunisia. 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 is Carlos Slepoy, the human rights lawyer who co-led the case against Pinochet. 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, how individuals confront silence and fight for justice, and how societies should deal with perpetrators of crimes against humanity in their midst. 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?