Film Review: Silent Witnesses (Mudos Testigos)
by Rose Finlay

Luis Ospina, Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga, Colombia, France 2023

Despite having received the technology in the late 19th century, Colombia only ever produced twelve silent films. This is partly due to the history of conflict in the region, but also the influence and dominance of foreign films on the market. Of these twelve films, two have been lost, two are fully preserved, and the rest remain as only fragments. In SILENT WITNESSES, started by renowned Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina (who passed away in 2019) and finished by journalist Jerónimo Atehortúa Arteaga, these films have been pieced together to create a new, distinctly Colombian, romantic melodrama. The resulting film is a bit nonsensical while also feeling surprisingly long (it is only 79 minutes). Was it really impossible to come up with a more cohesive story? In addition, the music is often grating, modern, and overwhelming in a way that detracts from the film itself. Where SILENT WITNESSES succeeds is in bringing some rarely seen uniquely Colombian silent film footage into the light again. At one point, the film takes a turn and starts to show news clips: a personification of the US threatening the country, peasant insurrections, Argentinian singer Carlos Gardel’s plane crash. Each snippet is a fascinating cinematic glimpse of the past of Colombia. Despite its flaws, SILENT WITNESSES is a fascinating look into the largely lost and overlooked work of early Colombian cinema.