Guatemala has announced that The Silence of the Mole / El silencio del topo, the debut documentary film by Anaïs Taracena will represent the country in the Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards. The film had its world premiere at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival last year in Toronto, Canada, and has since then played at numerous international film festivals, including Sheffield, Guadalajara, Malaga, DOC NYC, and Jeonju, where it won a Special Jury Prize.
The documentary film tells the story of journalist Elías Barahona, who succeeded in infiltrating the most repressive government in Guatemala, that of General Romeo García. Dubbing himself 'the mole', he lived life undercover, courageously passing information to the resistance.
The Silence of the Mole is only the fourth Guatemalan candidate after The Silence of Neto / El silencio de Neto by Luis Argueta in 1994, and Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul in 2015 and La Llorona in 2020, the latter made it to the short list.
