A Long Silence

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, a woman whose husband and son fought on the Republican side returns to the provincial city where she had lived before the conflict. She is accompanied by her daughters and young granddaughter. As though by an omen of ill-tiding, the tired, weak and defeated women are welcomed home with a rainstorm, but these survivors’ eyes shine brightly with determination and their desire to keep on going. Save for the child, they have all lost much, maybe too much, in the war. Soon, the victors will show the women that they have also lost the things they thought they still had, from the family house, which has been taken over, to beauty in their dreams. The defeat has not just been total; it is also continuous.
Un largo silencio tells the story of a group of women who survived the Spanish Civil War but who must now learn to confront the harsh realities of defeat. Ángeles Caso draws a masterful portrait of daily life in a troubled era during which human nature can only come to the fore through its will to live, love and fight for the future.