Between 1980 and 2000, a war between the Peruvian government and a terrorist organization called the Shining Path left more than 70,000 dead and 15,000 missing. These crimes have gone mostly unpunished, and in recent years the families of the victims have continued to demand justice and seek ways to fight indifference.

To identify the remains found in mass graves, forensic anthropologists use outline figures of the human body to indicate wounds and trauma. Filmmaker Vicente Cueto teams up with the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF) to provide the relatives of the victims of enforced dissapearance with diagrams of the human body, encouraging them to draw commemorative portraits from memory.

The main purpose of Drawing From Memory is to generate knowledge and make more visible (within Peru and internationally) a violent case of recent Peruvian history. On a broader level, to reflect about different ways of narrating and creating memory of violent and traumatic events. Can art have a therapeutic role and help heal victims of severe trauma? Can art move people to be more politically engaged?