When the Guns Go Silent
( El Silencio de los fusiles )

Natalia Orozco
2017 - 120 min - Video Full HD - Couleur - Colombie, France

What lies beyond war? After half a century of armed conflict and three failed peace processes, the oldest guerrilla in the world, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), begins a dialogue with the Colombian government, promising to silence their weapons and undertake the transition into the political spheres.[…]
In short, we spent four talking to the negotiators (from both sides of the conflict), and the victims of the war. Four years of watching and selecting unedited images of combat in which we see how all parties have debased their way of fighting. This complex work has allowed me to create a documentary that reflects the cruelty of violence, the challenge of forgiveness, and the moral dilemmas that arise in the face of excess, something that’s also prevalent in military action (legal or otherwise).
Narrated in first person, with a intimate voice of a privileged witness (myself, the author), this is a documentary film about the complexities, fears, trials, and illusions this final struggle stirs within the insurgents in their transition to democracy, and about a society that must advance towards forgiveness and reconciliation. This is a story that shows that even though there might be some victories against the war, the battle for peace will never be fully won.