Like many countries in South America, Guatemala also has a sad modern history where many people who fought for democracy lost their lives or disappeared under the US-backed military dictatorship. The Silence of the Mole is the first feature-length documentary by Anaïs Taracena, whose own father lived in exile to escape the oppression of the dictatorship. It tells the story of Elías Barahona, the former Interior Ministry spokesman in the late 1970s, while this tragic period began in 1960 and lasted until 1996. Although he had to glorify the dictatorship and suppress the anti-government press reports at the same time, he was a “mole” who saved the lives of many pro-democracy activists through information that he obtained from the center of the dictatorship. Barahona's life-risking espionage, the hard-found footage from the 1970s, and testimonies of guerrilla fighters who waged an armed struggle against the government provide a direct look into Guatemala's dark times. [CHUN Jinsu]