COUNTRY
Spain
PRODUCTION
LuzNorte Films
YEAR2025
DURATION20 min
WRITING Samuel Vela, Iñaki Luis
CINEMATOGRAPHY Iñaki Luis
MUSIC
Pablo Acevedo Navarro
EDITION Samuel Vela, Iñaki Luis
DISTRIBUTION Yaq distribución
INTERNATIONAL SALES Yaq distribución
CONTACT alicia@yaqdistribucion.com
SYNOPSIS In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the documentary The Strength of Silence follows the life of Letebirhan, a 17-year-old girl whose life was fractured by war. Kidnapped, a survivor of sexual violence, and left to raise a child born from trauma, she faces rejection from her community and family. Her survival relies not only on the bread she bakes to sustain herself but also on an ancestral ritual: the coffee ceremony, where women like her transform silence into a powerful act of resistance and sisterhood.
Samuel Vela
A Hispanic Bolivian filmmaker, born in Cochabamba in 1986, he studied film in Madrid thanks to an Ibermedia scholarship for Spanish-speaking countries. Since his first directorial work,
Voluntary Return, he has maintained a sensitive and socially engaged perspective in his filmmaking.
FILMOGRAPHY
La fuerza del silencio (short film, 2025)
