Reviews & Quotes | The Silence of Others

London School of Economics | Sir Paul Preston, Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies and Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre
"The Silence of Others exposes the reality of the suffering imposed by Franco’s military rebels and their subsequent dictatorship. It is powerful and deeply moving and conveys more about the agonies of Republican memory than a library of books ever could.”

Video Librarian
"The Silence of Others is a groundbreaking documentary in its scope and content."

Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO) Reviewed by Alan Witt, Business Librarian, SUNY Geneseo
"Highly recommended for academic libraries, especially ones serving any programs that touch on Spanish history and language.""

Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO) Reviewed by Alan Witt, Business Librarian, SUNY Geneseo
"Highly recommended for academic libraries, especially ones serving any programs that touch on Spanish history and language."

Oberlin College Sebastiaan Faber, Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies
"The Silence of Others is not only one of the most important documentaries on Spain to come out in decades–it's also eminently fit for a U.S. student audience. Beautifully filmed and expertly narrated, the film allows any viewer–whether they are familiar with Spanish history or not--to engage with a subject matter that appeals to the mind and the heart. The film's intense emotional charge does not distract from its intellectual rigor and the clarity of the philosophical and political questions that it raises. When we screened the film at Oberlin, the students who attended immediately understood that, even though this is a story deeply rooted in recent Spanish history, its larger themes can be applied to many other countries--including the United States. Having the filmmakers there in the room for the Q&A allowed for an immediate, productive discussion that further helped bring home the tremendous relevance of the story this film tells."

UC Davis Cristina Martínez-Carazo, Professor of Spanish
"The Silence of Others admirably brings into harmony the politics and the affective, trapping the viewers in a network of ideas and emotions that are indispensable to understand our reality. The documentary lays bare that memory is present and that it is necessary to think here and now about the traumatic past that Spain goes through today. Beyond its unquestionable ethical and aesthetic value, on a pedagogic level The Silence of Others has the ability to alert the student, opening a path of reflexion that is able to capture the dialectics between art and reality. The impact of this text in the students turns it into an indispensable tool to stimulate a critical look in dealing with the study of human rights, justice, memory and trauma. Along this, the director’s ability during the Q&A to bring the students closer to the point of intersection between daily life history and the creative process humanizes the text and brings into relief the capacity of visual language as an instrument to drill the present. The enthusiasm of the students during the viewing and the colloquium, and their curiosity to know what is left behind the screen, brings into relief that, beyond the educational value, the documentary becomes an experience."

Indiana University Cristiana Ochoa, Executive Associate Dean; Professor of Law
"How can a government go unchallenged for the death and disappearance of over 100,000 people and the abduction of countless children? Beautiful and viscerally compelling, The Silence of Others demonstrates the power of law to withhold or bestow justice, through time and across borders. It is mandatory viewing for anyone interested in human rights, international law, or impact litigation.”

Dartmouth College Matt Garcia, Professor of History and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies
"Carracedo and Bahar remind us that, if the devil never sleeps, neither do advocates for justice. The film honors the victims of the Franco dictatorship by acknowledging their suffering and championing those who have travelled across continents to restore their memory and dignity. A work of great passion and sophistication, The Silence of Others shows us the cost of forgetting state violence and what we must do to prevent it from happening again."

Film Inquiry
"Hauntingly beautiful."

Screen Daily
"An ELEGANT reckoning. Unfolding with all the force of a classic political thriller by Costa-Gavras or Francesco Rosi... The Silence of Others emerges as a moving salute to the small victories of determined individuals."

Variety
"A furious, near-operatic surge of national pain… Intricately fascinating... stoically tender…"

The Hollywood Reporter
"A stirring documentary... a very necessary story, delivered with rigor and conviction."

The Nation
"Clear-eyed, clear-headed, and artful... It has made a difference in the world."

The New York Times
"Startling in showing how vestiges of the Franco era have casually persisted in Spain."

The Boston Globe
"Haunting and infuriating, this winner of Spain’s 2019 Goya Award for best documentary bears witness to the price paid for denying the past."

The Los Angeles Times & The San Diego Tribune
"Carracedo and Bahar wisely keep their probing camera trained on the passionate faces of their subjects, allowing their stirring testimonies to take the spotlight... The Silence of Others speaks relevant volumes on the subject of accountability."

San Francisco Examiner
"Terrific documentary... valuable history lesson and a stirring mosaic of citizen efforts to bring truth to light so that the horrors don’t happen again."

The New Yorker
"A plea against inaction"

The Guardian
"The film that wants to stop Spain forgetting"

IDA Documentary Magazine
"Exceptionally moving… In a style evocative of the best of Patricio Guzmán… this film is a milestone in recovery of a past that is not over—and, to invoke Faulkner, not even past."

The Stanford Daily
"works its way into the heart of its audience by showing the aching yearning for justice in interviews with the survivors of the regime… The Silence of Others, in its presentation of a frustrating image of a country that has failed its people in the hurry to move on, is a necessary puncturing of the silence surrounding the issue. As far-right parties like Vox gain power in Spain, it is imperative that the Spanish government address and resolve its continued irresponsible policy regarding its past."

Slant Magazine
"The Silence of Others is, in any case, monumental for its clamorous sounding of an alarm. It reminds us, and we do need reminding, that the acts of horror committed by nation states are often followed by a convenient amnesia—a whitewashing of man’s brutality—where everyone agrees to be good citizens moving forward. But beyond its pedagogical function, the film helps us posit more philosophical questions of justice versus revenge, along with the endless transmission of trauma."

The Stranger
"A moving reminder of the harm that comes from denying the truth of crimes done by those in power"

Berkeley Side
"The Silence of Others makes it shockingly clear how little things have changed in Spain since 1975"

East Bay Express
"One of the bitterest cinematic history lessons you'll ever see."

Film Int.
"One of the most socio-historically significant European documentaries of recent years"

Fotogramas
"An extraordinary cry against the thieves of memory. The most necessary documentary of the last 80 years [in Spain]... When future historians want to learn about our reality, they won’t use newspapers or school books.. they will turn to works like The Silence of Others."

Le Monde
"The dramatic force of the story of a fight. The film succeeds in fighting and – for a moment – winning over oblivion"

Le Figaro
"Gorgeous and moving"

Télérama
"Extraordinary… With great intelligence, this passionate documentary retraces the threads of memory… With great force, it denounces the denial of justice."

Cinemanía
"A wrenching and prescient documentary. We can only hope it is seen by those who don’t want to talk about historic memory."

Cineuropa
"This courageous, moving, lithe, necessary and eye-opening documentary dares to demand the truth."