Silent Witnesses by Luis Ospina, Jeronimo Atehortua

Mudos testigos (Silent Witnesses) is an epic melodrama that narrates the impossible love between Efraín and Alicia throughout the convulsive first half of the 20th century in Colombia.

Based on the first twelve silent Colombian films (1922-1937) that have managed to survive the passage of time, and taking as a reference several seminal novels of Colombian literature, this new imaginary story pays homage to those disappeared and unknown films.

What begins as a melodrama in which Efraín falls in love with Alicia, engaged to Uribe, the powerful and vengeful gamonal, soon develops into a revealing journey into the heart of the jungle, where Efraín will witness the humiliating conditions of the peasants in the south of Colombia and the birth of an armed rebellion. The film is set amidst the couple's impossible love affairs, caused by the conservative morals of the time, an assassination attempt, the nefarious burning of the entire city, madness, class differences, the peasant struggle and even a fictitious war with the United States.

Taking the baton from the late Luis Ospina, one of the most prolific and influential filmmakers in Latin American cinema and documentary tradition "The Vampires of Poverty '', "A Paper Tiger '' and "It All Started at the End"), Jerónimo Atehortúa brings his own voice to "Mudos Testigos", his "opera prima".

A coproduction with Invasion Cine (Colombia).

Supported by the CNC - Fonds d'aide à l'innovation audiovisuelle; the CNAP and Hubert Bals Fund.