Spanish with English subtitles
How does a nation end decades of war? How is peace truly won? After more than 50 years of armed struggle and three failed peace processes, Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are preparing to disarm and embrace the path of political participation. Directed by Natalia Orozco, When the Guns Go Silent chronicles this pivotal transition from war to peace, capturing a crucial moment in Colombian history.
The documentary explores the complexities behind ending a longstanding conflict and the challenges of building a lasting peace. Through powerful storytelling and firsthand accounts, the film provides a comprehensive look at how Colombia—after generations of violence—seeks to transform itself and heal its society. When the Guns Go Silent stands as a testament to resilience, hope, and the power of dialogue in the face of division.
Press
“An exceptional documentary that does not focus solely on the current peace process. Through powerful archival footage, it reveals the longest history of a war whose victim was the entire Colombian society.” – Diana Bustamante and Pedro Adrián Zuluaga, Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival
“El silencio de los fusiles manages to provide a comprehensive view of the difficult peace process that ultimately succeeded in silencing the guns. This process was mistakenly kept as a clandestine exercise in Havana, whose pieces Natalia finally manages to assemble into a tight puzzle.” – María Elvira Bonilla, Diario El País
“The greatest effort made so far to film the FARC-State conflict from within (...) There is a clear effort to achieve a balance on screen between the two opposing sides.” – José Fajardo, El Mundo España
Notes on Film
“[Answering the question ‘What is the film you dream of doing in your life?’] Spontaneously, as if the words had been lodged for years in the deepest and most sincere part of my will, I responded: ‘the film of my country making a transition toward a lasting peace.’ The scene took place in South Korea. It was November 2012, and I had just finished my first war documentary, filmed in Libya, about the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. I was invited to Seoul by the Korean television channel KBS to speak with journalists from that region about the challenges women face when covering armed conflicts. There, millions of kilometers away from my homeland, I understood then that the news beginning to fill national and international headlines about the peace process between the government of the moment and the FARC, the oldest guerrilla in the world, would mark the next years of my life.
The news reported how some of the top guerrilla commanders, in hiding for decades, had obtained—at the request of the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos—a temporary lifting of the arrest warrant issued by Interpol, in order to travel to Havana, Cuba, the setting for the peace talks that from the outset divided Colombian public opinion. Sixteen years had passed since I left my country for France to specialize in Political Science and later in Humanitarian Aid, as well as to develop a career as a correspondent in the United States and Europe. I never stopped covering events related to my country or returning temporarily to do volunteer work with human rights organizations. But that journey, I realized, had only been a period of preparation. It was time to return.
Carrying out research on topics of foreign policy and human rights—from Guantánamo prison, to Europe’s treatment of ethnic minorities such as the Roma, and above all the civil uprising in North Africa—confirmed my worldview and my resistance to understanding the realities I inhabited with the simplistic logic of ‘good guys and bad guys’. These experiences allowed me to mature the questions I had expressed since childhood, in my family, at school, and at university, about the armed conflict, about structural issues related to justice, freedom, social vindication, rebellion, the justification of arms, and the option of democracy. The peace process in Colombia opened the moment for me to seek answers to all those questions, to inquire into the complexity of our human condition in extreme situations such as war.”
– Natalia Orozco, Director
