Republic of Silence

They grew up in the lands of dictators and surveillance, where images are censored, photos are burned, thoughts are discreet, and mouths are kept shut. During the years, they made films, documented life, their lives, at least what was possible. They recorded sounds at night and in secret, for the senses to complete the image. From what are seemingly scattered images and narratives, a coherent emotive sensibility emerges unpacking a singular perspective of history and an attempt to speak what has been unspoken and silenced. A first person narrative which pendulates between a perspective that is timelessly personal and intimate, and another which is, on the contrary, very vast, contemporary and political. It traces the journeys of a filmmaker and her partner, friends and their families, once as revolutionaries in their country, once as exiles in Europe nowadays, once as activists, as filmmakers, as lovers, and as listeners. A contemplative journey from silence into words, from blindness into seeing, and of how cinema made it possible and saved their lives. (Venice International Film Festival)