Twenty years ago, the filmmaker struck up a friendship with Ioana in Romania. She returns to ask her about family silences. Together, they analyse a powerful and despotic mechanism: the perpetuation of denial.

AFTER THE SILENCE deals with how the effects of dictatorship are still extremely vivid, even after the fall of dictatorship. It is a film about the abuses of the state, about fear, how silence is passed on from one generation to the next. A film about the space which, despite all that is known, is left to ghosts that make it impossible to live fully in the present. Three generations walled in silence. The legacy of denial, as nothing has been put back in its place and nothing has been said. Killing the dictator is not enough to kill the dictatorship.

Vanina Vignal was born in France. She trained as an actress at the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theater and Movement, and the National Theatre Conservatory of Romania. She has worked extensively in theatre, which has given her a subtle perception of drama embedded in people’s everyday lives. She then trained as an assistant editor and assistant director, before turning to her own projects. Among other things, she speaks fluent Romanian, which gives her direct access to the people she has chosen to film.

Filmography

STELLA (“Prix du Patrimoine” at the Cinéma du Réel - 2007) was Vanina Vignal’s first film as a director NOVEMBREproductions - http://www.stellalefilm.com

AFTER THE SILENCE 2012