The dangerous silences of memory

Abstract

Peru’s 20 year-long Internal Armed Conflict is an open wound, a part of the country’s History still disputed. Cultural memory is paving the path for new generations to learn about what happened during the period. Films are part of the cultural products that represent some of the events; they are screened in seminars, film forums, Universities, or memory museums as evidence of what happened, as a testimony of the traumatic days the country lived. 

In this work we analyze the way the Internal Armed Conflict is remembered by twelve films produced after the conflict was over, identifying the absences that may lead to dangerous silences. These films are held as clues to re-construct the past. But partial tales may lead to an incomplete and flawed memory.