Repression and Resistance

An exploration of Spain and Latin America’s dark history of authoritarian regimes, political violence, and state-sponsored terror. Through powerful documentaries and dramatic narratives, the collection examines the experiences of those who suffered under fascism, military dictatorship, and repression, as well as the ongoing struggle for justice and human rights. These films challenge viewers to face uncomfortable truths about the past, and to reflect on the urgent need to build a more equitable, democratic, and inclusive society.

New to Pragda? Please sign up and login to preview and/or license this collection. If your institution has already licensed this collection, you will need to access this page from your institution's network to watch the film. For help on using Pragda, please visit our help wiki.

for licensing options.

The Repression and Resistance collection includes the following titles:

339 Amín Abel Hasbun. Memory of a Crime

339 Amín Abel Hasbún. Memoria de un crimen
Drama, Fiction, Thriller Dominican Republic
An intriguing account of the murder of Amín Abel Hasbún, a brilliant student leader in the Dominican Republic accused of kidnapping US Embassy official, J. Crowley. Hasbún was fighting against the repressive government of Dr. Joaquín Balaguer.

5105, A Story of an Escape from Mauthausen

5105 Historia de una fuga de Mauthausen
Documentary, Animation Spain
In 1942, three Spanish prisoners created a plan to escape the Mauthausen extermination camp. Nobody had escaped alive until that moment.

918 Nights

918 GAU
Documentary Spain
After spending 918 nights in prison, director Arantza Santesteban Pérez recounts her experience. Caution: This film contains explicit sexual scenes. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

A History of an Assignment

Istoria odnoi komandirovki
Documentary Russia
A film depicting the ins and outs of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 1960s features Castro, Kennedy, and Khrushchev as protagonists.

Adriana's Pact

El pacto de Adriana
Documentary Chile
As her family’s worst nightmare unfolds on screen, Lissette Orozco's Adriana’s Pact explors accounts by human rights organizations, colleagues, and the press, but....who is saying the truth? The film bridges the divide between emotion, memory, and history.

After Spring

Depois da primavera
Documentary Brazil
Syrian brothers Adel and Hadi Bakkour take to the streets of Rio de Janeiro to fight for democracy in the country where they found refuge.

Amazon Mirror

O Reflexo do Lago
Documentary Brazil
During the 1980s, Brazil's military dictatorship erected a massive Amazon dam, leaving residents without electricity for 40 years. A film crew explores the decision to stay.

Asier and I

Asier eta Biok
Documentary Ecuador, Spain
Asier and I follows Aitor as he ties to understand what could have led his childhood friend to join the terrorist group ETA. Armed with a camera, Aitor meets Asier upon his release from jail, ready to tell this story.

Between the Americas, Ep. 1: Listening to San Blas

Documentary The Netherlands
The San Blas Islands house Kuna people facing the realities of climate change. Stef Biemans captures their culture's fading sounds amid rising seas.

Between the Americas, Ep. 2: Panama’s Echo

Documentary The Netherlands
Panama's thriving economy fuels vertical growth. Biemans explores the vibrant neighborhood beneath, uncovering changes for ordinary Panamanians.

Between the Americas, Ep. 3: The Silence of Guatemala

Documentary The Netherlands
The Maya people's 40-year silence on the Guatemalan genocide under General Ríos Montt. Will there be a moment to finally break this silence?

Black Bread

Pa negre
Drama, Fiction, Thriller Spain
The Spanish selection for the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, Black Bread is set in the war-ravaged Catalan countryside of the early 1940s where a local man is accused of murder and his son sets out to find the truth.

Black and White Democracy

Democracia em preto e branco
Documentary, Musical Brazil
Follow Brazil's transition from dictatorship to democracy through three narratives: demands for free elections, Brazilian rock groups, and the Corinthian democracy football movement.

Building Bridges

Construindo pontes
Documentary Brazil
An exploration of the possible relationship between Heloísa, the filmmaker, and her father, an engineer who had his moment of glory during the Brazilian military dictatorship.

Calls from Moscow

Llamadas desde Moscú
Documentary Cuba, Germany, Norway
An apartment in Moscow becomes the stage for one day in the lives of four queer Cuban exiles, shortly before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine changes everything.

Carlos Saura Photographer

Documentary Germany
Legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura unveils his hidden passion: Photography.

Ciro and Me

Ciro y yo
Documentary Colombia
Wherever Ciro goes, war always finds him. His children were recruited by the armies of war, his family was repeatedly displaced, and his indigenous wife died of sadness. Foreign to the system, but a victim of the system, Ciro has led a heroic anonymous struggle to live life on his own terms.

Defect

La tara
Documentary, Experimental Argentina, Spain
A light lens into deep history led by the discovery of the soundtrack to Argentina's sole surrealist film, the 1936 “Tararira: Today's Bohemia.”

Dicing with Death, Ep. 05 - Cuba: Viva la Vida

Cuba: Viva la vida
Documentary, Series France
In Cuba, no matter the obstacles, people keep smiling and moving forward.

El Amparo

El amparo
Drama, Fiction, Thriller Colombia, Venezuela
In the Venezuelan town of El Amparo, near the border with Colombia, a group of fishermen sets off down the Aruca River. But only two men return, their friends shot down by the military, who claim they were clandestine guerrillas on a mission.

El Eternauta´s Wife

La mujer de El Eternauta
Documentary Argentina, Spain
Elsa Sánchez's life is evidence of the cruelty of Argentina’s repressive dictatorship, which took the lives of her husband and family.

Elena

Documentary United States, Dominican Republic
When the Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, Elena becomes the face of the struggle against the opaque bureaucratic process and a racist, hostile society, to stay in a country built on the labor of her forefathers.

Everybody Leaves

Todos se van
Drama, Fiction, Romance Colombia, Cuba
A celebration of freedom and a confrontation of the authoritarian Cuban regime of the 1980s, which led to one of the country’s worst economic crises. The film is based on the award-winning novel by Cuban writer Wendy Guerra.

Exiles

Exilios
Documentary Spain, Mexico
Exiles reveals the lives of three artists who fled the Spanish Civil War to reinvent themselves in Mexico, making an impact on art and culture.

Fearless

Sin miedo
Documentary Mexico, Spain, Guatemala
A group of relatives of people disappeared during the Guatemalan military dictatorship requested and obtained, among many other measures of compensation, the production of a documentary film describing the events by the State. Fearless is an exploration of the current shapes of our memory (individual and collective).

Fidelandia: Behind the Curtain of Cuba's Revolution

Documentary Cuba, United States
Fidelandia takes a look at the country’s culture post Fidel’s fifty-year reign, exploring how the youth deals with the influence of Western culture impacting the country by way of tourism, the use of illegal Internet, and television.

Filiberto

Documentary Venezuela, Puerto Rico
A biopic documentary about Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a professional musician who abandons his trumpet and his family to live a clandestine, armed revolutionary life.

Freedom Is a Big Word: After Guantanamo

La libertad es una palabra grande
Documentary Uruguay
After 13 years in Guantánamo, Muhammad starts a new life in Uruguay. He’ll get a home and welfare for two years, then be on his own.

Fusilados

Documentary Spain
2,237 people discovered in a mass grave in a Valencian town. It's been 80 years. Will there ever be justice?

Giants Don't Exist

Los gigantes no existen
Drama, Fiction Guatemala
Based on the true story of Guatemalan activist Jesús Tecú, Chema Rodríguez’s second feature is a harrowing and powerful drama about survival and hope. Teco was one of the few survivors of the 1982 Río Negro massacre against indigenous populations, in which 177 women and children died.

Greykey

Documentary Spain
Fear and fascination arise in Muriel Grey when she remembers her father, one of the only black survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Guerrilla Voices: Humanizing War

Voces de guerrilla
Documentary Colombia, The Netherlands
After the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP in 2016, more than 200 guerrillas enter a demobilization camp where rebels prepare for a life without arms.

I Am the People: Venezuela Under Populism

El pueblo soy yo: Venezuela en populismo
Documentary Mexico, Venezuela
In a world increasingly less transparent, where the shortcut of populism lurks to endanger democracies, I Am The People: Venezuela Under Populism compels us to ask ourselves if any society, however stable, can be considered invulnerable to a populist irruption and its consequences. Populism isn’t an ideology. It’s a way of governing.

I Owe You a Letter About Brazil

Fico te devendo uma carta sobre o Brasil
Documentary Brazil
An investigation into the persistence of silence as a tool to erase memory in Brazil.

I Will be Murdered

Documentary, Thriller Spain, United Kingdom
I Will Be Murdered is a gripping, edge-of-your seat documentary that portrays the astonishing, real-life story of a lawyer who launched a personal crusade in search of justice, and brought his country to the brink of chaos.

In Exile: A Family Film

Un exilio: película familiar
Documentary Mexico
In Exile: A Family Film tells some of the personal accounts that are intertwined with the shared history of Spain and Mexico from the time of Spanish King Alfonso XIII (1874-1923) through the present.

Invasion: A Diary of Panama's U.S. Invasion

Invasion: A Diary of Panama's U.S. invasion
Documentary Panama
The invasion of Panama by the U.S on Christmas and New Year of 1989 – when American troops deposed dictator Manuel Noriega, killing an unknown number of civilians in the process- serves as an excuse to explore how a people remember, transform, and often forget their past in order re-define their identity and become who they are today.

It's All Good

Está todo bien
Documentary Germany, Venezuela
As the health system collapses, Venezuelans experience severe medicine shortages and have to cope with the country’s brutal reality.

Latin Wars

América armada
Documentary Brazil
Threatened with death, three activist in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico fight against violence fueled by the State and the arms industry using information, awareness, and affection.

Machuca

Drama, Fiction, Classic Chile, Spain
A political and emotionally charged story, experienced by two 11-year-old boys coming from opposite ends of the social spectrum in the days leading up to the military coup in Chile.

Martírio

Documentary Brazil
Filmed over the course of 40 years, indigenous expert and filmmaker Vincent Carelli seeks out the origins of the Guaraní Kaiowá genocide. A conflict of disproportionate forces: the peaceful and obstinate insurgency of the dispossessed Guaraní Kaiowá against the powerful apparatus of agribusiness.

Memory and Beyond

La memoria y después
Documentary Argentina
After surviving the Holocaust, Sara emigrated to Argentina where she again survives intolerance and hatred after the disappearance of her son Daniel.

Militiawomen: The Women Who Fought The Spanish Civil War

Milicianas
Documentary Spain
Militiawomen narrates the intense investigation to discover the identity of five militia-women executed in Mallorca in 1936. One picture and the existence of an anonymous journal, attributed to one of them, are the only clues. Is it possible, 80 years later, to discover the identity of those who remain silenced at the bottom of the graves?

Mute Fire

Pirotecnia
Documentary Colombia
A personal essay that examines the relationship between film footage, the events of the war in Colombia, family history, and the origins of cinema in Colombia.

My Bolivia, Remembering What I Never Knew

Documentary Bolivia, United States
My Bolivia is a historic road trip to make sense of a family’s and a country’s past.

NN

NN sin identidad
Drama, Fiction Peru
A powerful, nuanced look at a country’s efforts to come to terms with a dark chapter in its history.

Neither Hero nor Traitor

Ni héroe ni traidor
Drama, Fiction Argentina
Matías dreams of going to Spain to study music far from a dictatorship. His problems come down to convincing his girlfriend to meet him there and to get around his father’s opposition. But the playing field changes completely when the Falklands War breaks out and he is drafted along with his friends.

Obra

Drama, Fiction Brazil
In the heavily populated city of São Paulo, a young architect discovers a clandestine cemetery underneath the construction site of his latest project.

On the Other Side

Del otro lado
Documentary Colombia, France
Two brothers decide to venture on a journey to find the FARC guerrillas who kept their mother captured for 2 years.

One or Two Questions

Documentary Uruguay, Germany
A testimony of the capacity of documentary cinema (and archives) to unravel the complexity of history, One or Two Questions documents the mood on the streets of Uruguay between 1987 and 1989 following the approval of a law granting amnesty for all crimes and human rights violations committed by the army and police during the dictatorship.

Port of Destiny: Peace

Documentary United States
This film follows Nobel laureate Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's President, as he pursues peace, battling FARC guerrillas, orchestrating rescues, and facing political consequences.

Red Gringo: American Pop Culture and Cold War in Latin America.

Gringo rojo
Documentary, Musical Chile
Reminiscent of Searching for Sugarman, the film follows Dean Reed, a North American singer who became a pop idol during the ʼ50s and ʼ60s in Chile and the Americas.

Returned

Documentary United States
As three families are deported to Honduras, the film explores the experience of being returned to a familiar, yet increasingly unsafe situation.

Rota n' Roll

Documentary Spain
In the 50s, a group of American marines brought dollars, Marlboros, Cadillacs, night clubs, and rock n´roll into post civil war Spain, an impoverished fascist dictatorship.

Santiago, Italia

Documentary Italy
Filmmaker Nanni Moretti recounts the 1973 coup d'état in Chile, which put an end to Salvador Allende's democratic government.

Seeds: Black Women in Power

Sementes: Mulheres pretas no poder
Documentary Brazil
The 2018 elections turned into the biggest political uprising led by Black women in Brazil's history, in response to the brutal execution of Marielle Franco.

Sieged: The Press vs. Denialism

Cercados: Naimprensa contra o negacionismo na pandemia
Documentary Brazil
Leading through a pandemic with denialism and propaganda, Bolsonaro took his country to the edge of disaster while journalists warned the country of a public health disaster.

Siembra

Fiction, Drama Colombia
Colombian fisherman Turco yearns to return to the land he abandoned years ago due to an ongoing conflict. When his son is killed, it shatters Turco's dreams of returning.

Silence is a Falling Body

El silencio es un cuerpo que cae
Documentary Argentina
This story of political activism and sexual dissidence offers a fascinating insight into life in Argentina between the 1970s and 1990s, peeling back layers of left-wing politics, homosexuality, and AIDS as it shifts between private and public spheres, intertwining the personal and the political. 

Stanbrook

Drama Spain
As the Spanish Civil War winds down, the Port of Alicante is a beacon of desperation and hope. Thousands await ships hired by the Republic to escape.

Stories Our Cinema Did (Not) Tell

Histórias que nosso cinema (nāo) contava
Documentary Brazil
A review of the military dictatorship in Brazil told only through images and sounds from pornochanchada films, a genre of erotic film that was the most popular during that period.

Tania Libre

Tania libre
Documentary Cuba, United States, Germany
In a fascinating and novel approach, Lynn Hershman Leeson allows us to eavesdrop on one of the world’s most celebrated—and daring—Cuban artists, Tania Bruguera’s session with Dr. Frank Ochberg, a New York-based psychiatrist and pioneer in post-traumatic stress disorder and the Stockholm syndrome.

Tehran Blues

Un blues para Teherán
Documentary, Musical Spain
The city’s musicians and poets take us on a musical tour of Iran’s capital in a charming film about a music culture rarely heard of in the West.

The Authority

Drama, Fiction Spain
A Spanish-Moroccan family that is going out on vacation is stopped by the police. After the humiliating search, things will never be the same.

The Chess Player

El jugador de ajedrez
Drama Spain
A story of love and survival set during the Nazi invasion of France during World War II.

The Companion

El acompañante
Drama, Fiction, Thriller Cuba
Set in 1988 Cuba as the government dispatched HIV patients to AIDS centers under military rule, The Companion narrates the unlikely friendship between a boxing champion and a conflictive patient.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 01 - The Indian Protection Service Scandal

O escândalo do serviço de proteção aos índios
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 02 - Pacification and Transfer

Pacificação e transferência
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 03 - The Pin and the Transamazonica

O pin e a transamazõnica
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 04 - From Emancipation to the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant

Da emancipação à hidrelétrica Itaipu
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 05 - The Transnational Indigenous Movement

O movimento indígena transnacional
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Dangerous Memory, Ep. 06 - The 1988 Constitution and the Challenges of the 21st Century

A consituiçao de 1988 e os desafios do séc. XXI
Documentary, Series Brazil
An investigation into the extermination policy of the Brazilian State against indigenous populations during the civil-military dictatorship.

The Day That Lasted 21 Years

O dia que durou 21 anos
Documentary Brazil, United States
A look at how and why the United States supported a conspiracy to overthrow the Brazilian elected President Joao Goulart in 1964, when Ambassador Lincoln Gordon planned South America's longest military dictatorship with the support of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

The Death of Jaime Roldós

La Muerte de Jaime Roldós
Documentary Argentina, Ecuador
The history of Ecuador was shaken in 1981 by the sudden death of President Jaime Roldós and his wife in a suspicious plane crash. Combining investigative journalism and film essay, the film uncovers an unknown chapter in the history of Latin America that resonates deeply in the present.

The Death of Pinochet

La muerte de Pinochet
Documentary, Experimental Chile
With undeniable historical, social, and political importance, The Death of Pinochet expresses the vitality of a nation while exposing the political divisions that marked Chile’s recent history with death and violence.

The German Neighbor

El vecino alemán
Documentary, Fiction Argentina
The German Neighbor follows the steps of Adolf Eichmann’s awkward and unusual life in Argentina, and his remarkable defense at the trial in Jerusalem.

The Metal Stork

La cigüeña metálica
Documentary Spain, El Salvador
During El Salvador’s civil war, rural kids Ana Lilian, Ricardo, and Blanca witnessed the murder of their families and grieved as a military helicopter determined their fate. Now, they try to reconnect with their long-lost families, hoping to reconcile their pasts and bring peace to the present.

The Offended

Los ofendidos
Documentary Mexico, El Salvador
An award-winning documentary on the legacy of the internal armed conflict in El Salvador, The Offended features the director’s charismatic father, Rubén Zamora, a key political leader and current Salvadorian Ambassador before the UN who was captured and tortured by the National Police during the country’s civil war.

The Padilla Affair

El Caso Padilla
Documentary Spain, Cuba
A startling documentary about the poet Heberto Padilla that opens a window into the past and offers insights into Cuba’s current crisis.

The Rock

La roca
Documentary Spain
Despite being declared enemies by their countries, people in the Rock of Gibraltar and La Linea depended on each other, got married, and lived with their bilingual children. But Franco’s decision to close entrance to the British territory forced the separation of thousands of mixed families.

The Travel Agent

Pequeñas mentiras piadosas
Documentary Cuba, Spain, Italy
From her tiny office overlooking the U.S. Interests Section, 58-year old Lourdes counsels thousands of Cubans seeking a U.S. travel visas. She coaches them on answering tricky questions, fine-tuning their stories so they have a better chance of succeeding.

These Walls

Estos muros
Documentary Spain
During the Franco regime, Penalty Redemption through Labour was a legal device that allowed public and private companies to use republican prisoners as forced labor. Pascual exposes how this device was used in virtually all economic sectors throughout the country.

Tupamaro: Urban Guerrillas

Tupamaro: guerrilas urbanas
Documentary United States, Mexico, Venezuela
A raw look at the infamous leader of one of Venezuela’s ‘colectivos,' armed leftists who fight drug-traffickers, political opponents, and even each other.

Two Breaths

Bi arnas
Documentary
The tale of two breaths: that of Iratxe Sorzabal and her mother, Mari Nieves Díaz. Each has suffered the lack of breath caused by torture, together with other kinds of suffering.

Unconscious Revealed

Inconscientes revelados
Documentary Brazil
An examination of racial issues in Brazil from its historical formation, including Black representation in markets, entrepreneurial women, generational patterns, and the lingering scar of racism.

Vicente Ruiz: In Real Time

Vicente Ruiz: A tiempo real
Documentary Chile
An exploration of the social role of art through one of the leading figures of the Chilean counterculture of the 1980s: Vicente Ruiz.

When You No Longer Love Me

Cuando dejes de quererme
Fiction, Romance Spain
While investigating her father's death, Laura learns of the Spanish hard times during the ETA's war against the Franquist Regime, and her family's possible involvement in those crimes.

When the Guns Go Silent

El silencio de los fusiles
Documentary Colombia
The Colombian peace process explained with unprecedented access to the protagonists of the negotiations and exceptional archival material.

Why

ЧОМУ
Documentary Spain
The war in Ukraine told through the eyes of Ukrainian women.

With My Heart in Yambo

Con mi corazón en Yambo
Documentary Ecuador
In 1988, director María Fernanda Restrepo's two brothers—then 14 and 17—vanished without a trace. Decades later, Restrepo embarks on the painful journey of recounting her family’s story.

Zurita, You Will See Not to See

Zurita, verás no ver
Documentary Chile
National Literature Award Laureate Raúl Zurita is not only one of Latin America’s most celebrated and controversial living poets; he is also a rocker, a human rights activist, a public figure, and a tireless struggler. This documentary is an account of his travels and daily life, as he reflects on topics such as state terrorism and death.