The Power Of Silence

Pau Casals, widely regarded as the finest cellist of his era, is living in modest exile in Prada de Conflent, a small French town close to the Catalan border he cannot cross. The mid-1940s find him quietly sustaining Republican refugees, avoiding the Gestapo, and holding firm to a public vow: he will not perform again until Franco's dictatorship falls and the Western powers act.

When the Allied victory brings no change to Spain, that silence hardens into principle. Teaching cello to a handful of students becomes his livelihood. One of them, a young Frenchman named Pierre, grows increasingly troubled by the waste of it. His quiet persistence, joined eventually by the persuasion of violinist Alexander Schneider and a circle of the maestro's closest friends, begins to shift something in the old man.

The occasion that finally moves him is the 200th anniversary of Bach's death in 1950, and the idea of bringing the world's finest musicians to Prada to mark it. The concert that results is intimate and historic in equal measure, drawing kings and exiles alike to a small church in a mountain town.

Directed by Manuel Huerga and winner of the Monaco Red Cross Prize at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival, this is a portrait of moral courage expressed through restraint.