Pact of Silence

Carlos Echeverría

Pact of Silence investigates how the German community of Bariloche protected and welcomed Nazi war criminals –like Erich Priebke– who arrived there after the war, settled in, and ended up becoming pillars of the community and socially respected figures. Echeverría grew up in Bariloche, he studied Filmmaking in Munich, and was a first-hand witness of that “pact of silence” the film depicts very clearly and powerfully. “I used to live in Munich, and every time an Argentine person with German parents came along, I took him or her to Dachau”, he said in an interview. “They were surprised to see a concentration camp: their parents denied the Holocaust had existed”. Using stories from Priebke’s crimes –the Fosse Ardeatine massacre– together with Super 8 footage, interviews, and some fictional reenactments, the director of Juan, como si nada hubiera sucedido, again points the finger to the sores of a society that prefers to hide its ghosts beneath layers of snow –the ghosts that sooner or later will come out to the surface. (Diego Lerer - Catálogo Bafici).

Info

  • Year 2006
  • Type Documentary
  • Director Carlos Echeverría
  • Cast Edgardo Mesa, Pedro Echeverría Marcos Woinsky, Carolina Petrone, Rolf Rüst
  • Writer Carlos Echeverría
  • Producer Carlos Echeverría
  • DP Carlos Echeverría, Inés Gomez, Ramiro Civita (fotografía en ficciones).
  • Art María Alicia Vázquez
  • Sound Designer Cristian Reyes, Nerina Grisel Valido, Fernanda Alvarez, Inés Gomez
  • Film Editor Carlos Echeverría