Le silence des autres

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.

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...

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.

A brilliant movie showing the importance of truth, justice and reparation

Riveting, heartbreaking, and well done, My only reservation is I wish it had been longer or a series, with more details. I felt I needed and wanted to know more about the people and the outcomes.