Invisible Crimes (2007)

“Invisible Crimes” is part of the documentary film “Los Invisibles,” created on the initiative of the Spanish section of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Five internationally renowned directors were commissioned to make a film for the project, which aimed to give greater visibility to “invisible diseases,” i.e., medical problems and crisis areas that receive less attention from the global public and rarely appear in the media.

Wenders became involved in the project through Javier Bardem, a supporter of MSF and the producer of the film. He illustrates the dramatic situation of the thousands of women who are the victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been involved in a long civil war for years. Despite the peace agreements that were signed in 2002 between the guerrillas and the army, and the swearing in of a transition government, the staff of MSF treats an average of six women every day who have been sexually molested by the combatants, be they rebels, soldiers, or policemen. Sitting in front of the movie camera, made “invisible” by continuous fade-outs of their faces, some of the raped women tell their story, bearing witness to the pain of victims of war everywhere.

“At the end of the film, I knew that I could have shot it in several other places, because violence against women as a characteristic of every war is becoming an increasingly widespread fact.”