On the night of November 12, 1983, Santiago Corella, better known as Nani, He was arrested in Madrid for Paybar Jewelry Heist and for the murder of its owner. That Saturday he was taken to the police stations and that was the last time he was seen.

The investigation into his disappearance is still pending, despite the efforts of family lawyers such as Jaime Sans de Bremont; and specialized journalists such as Javier Valenzuela. The case revealed the existence of a corruption scheme in the Spanish police.

Five years later, for the first time in the history of a very young Spanish democracy, he sat on the bench outside of the police elite. The police officers involved in the case were sentenced to 30 years in prison for illegal detention and enforced disappearance.

This was the first trial of the so-called police mafia accused of organizing robberies and murders in the 1980s, but El Nani’s case remains unsolved and his body has never been found. The case was innovative in three respects: Nani was disappeared from democracy number 1, his trial was the first to be fully recorded and set a third precedent, culminating in the first time officials were convicted for the disappearance of the detainee.

In 1988, director Roberto Bodegas told the story of Santiago Corrella in a film. kill Nani

The story was told by Roberto Bodegas in the film kill Naniwhich became known in 1988. French actor Frédéric Debans played the title character in the film, which was released the year the trial ended but three years after the case began and went unnoticed at the box office despite its high budget. 150 million pesetas.

The costs were so high, among other things, because of the rights to portray Santiago Corella. Thirty-five years later, the free public channel platform RTVE Play is back to save this story. And he does it in a documentary Pact of Silence.

“We started looking into the entire recorded trial and saw that it had a lot of potential. Calling one of the prosecution’s lawyers, we saw that there is something to tell. The rest was random: all the lawyers wanted to participate, and a lot of people joined this story,” he says. Independent Cesar Vallejo, documentary filmmaker with Angela Gallardo.

The audiovisual creator explains that while preparing the documentary, he discovered that the Madrid of the eighties was not what we were told, and defends deromanticize V Quinca culture this coincided with a period of transition in Spain. “It was quite a turbulent time and there were a lot of dangers on the streets. The early years of democracy were inherited from the Franco regime and the institutions were not cleansed,” he explains.

For Vallejo, the key to what he considers a “very dark stage” in history was impunity: “The government did everything it could, but part of what happened was due to the gigantic impunity that existed in all institutions, as in police or between judgesIt was difficult,” he reflects on the documentary, which makes many references to José Barrionuevo Peña, the Minister of the Interior of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party from 1982 to 1988.

He emphasizes that the El-Nani case was the tip of the iceberg for many who followed a “pretty big” police corruption conspiracy and, speaking of its impact, recalls how the event “changed the safeguards system” because “unfortunately Santiago Corella, citizens today are not tortured and have the right to a lawyer, which meant big change for democracy in Spain”.

The Madrid of the eighties is not what we were told. There was a lot of insecurity and the institutions were not purged of their Francoist heritage.

Cesar Vallejo

So the documentary aims to get El Nani’s story, which is actually the story of many other people, out of the trunk so that it can be explored and solved, even though many of the main characters in these stories are no longer alive. . In fact, El Nani’s younger sister recently passed away without knowing what happened to her brother’s body, although Santiago Corella was officially declared dead in 1996. on the grounds that documents were seen in the trial showing that someone had written the acronym R.I.P. next to Santiago Corella’s name in the police detainee book on November 13, 1983, although it was later crossed out.

“While this case was widely publicized, it was quickly forgotten. There is a chance to find out. How is it possible that a democracy like ours has disappeared? It equates us to Argentina or Chile,” asks Vallejo, who argues that “there are still opportunities to solve this problem and make efforts so that new generations do not forget about it.”

In this regard, he adds that “it’s interesting that young people are starting to review the eighties because they’re going to do it without judgment. democratic memory This is important because of the opportunity to consider it with a certain objectivity, putting things in their place.

Preview of the documentary, which is divided into two 70 minute episodesHeld Thursday at the Estudio del Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, many of the documentary’s protagonists were in attendance, as were Ana Blanco and RTVE Play director Alberto Fernandez.

The Corrella Family: David vs. Goliath

During the discussion after watching the event, journalist Angela Gallardo emphasized courage of the main characters of the story and journalists going against the police at a time when it wasn’t easy. “They were able to continue this battle between David and Goliath, and they hired a lawyer who listened courageously and was not afraid to expose himself,” he said.

It was the third stop Pact of Silence, which has already been presented at the Malaga Festival and Seminci. Produced Diego Diaz Canothe documentary’s technical team consists of Pablo Piera Ansuategui (direction), Nico Casal (music), Alberto J. Fernandez (design), Cesar Vallejo (editing) and Ángel Gallardo (editing).

The six lawyers who were present at the trial participate in the documentary both on behalf of the prosecution (Jaime Sanz de Bremont, lawyer for the public prosecution, and Jose Antonio Sans Fat, attorney for private prosecution), as well as from the defense (Jose Emilio Rodriguez Menendez, Manuel Tuero, Manuel Salgado, Fernando Carpena) and one of the judges of the court (Jose Luis Duran Berrocal). In addition, the investigating judge is involved Andres Martinez Arrieta and Rafael Vera, former Minister of Security from 1982 to 1984 and from 1986 to 1994.