Synopsis
In the 1970s, journalist Elías Barahona, also known as “The Mole”, infiltrated the heart of one of the most repressive governments in Guatemalan history. The film captures the moments when revelations from the past explore the cracks in the walls of silence that surround the country’s secret history.
A word from Tënk
With a sensitive personal approach, the filmmaker delivers a gripping investigation revealing a fragment of the horrors committed by a bloody totalitarian regime. Through patient and precise editing, The Silence of the Mole alternates between testimonies filmed in the present day and previously unreleased archival footage, thereby demonstrating the importance of cinema and the need for its preservation as an indispensable model of safeguarding collective memory. But beyond the socio-historical function of a film dedicated to all individuals who “dream of a fairer country”, this cinematographic tribute to a brave man, the undercover journalist Elias Barahona, is also a moving art piece and a remarkably masterful debut feature.
Hubert Sabino-Brunette
Head of Programming
Cinéma sous les étoiles
Presented in collaboration with
