Yes! Another Film about the Spanish Civil War
Some historians view the Spanish Civil War as the beginning of World War II. It was an international Civil War, and the main players in World War II would indirectly come into contact for the first time through the two Spanish armies. The Soviet Union supported the republicans who also had support from Spanish communists and anarchists, while Germany and Italy supported the nacionalist Franco. The more powerful foreign powers supplied troops, training, and weaponry to the Spanish in an effort to influence the country into benefiting their own political wills.
There were also the famous International troops made up of republican defenders from all over the world including authors Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell who respectively wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and Homage to Catalunia about their experiences. Both books were also adapted to films, Homage to Catalunia by the great Ken Loach in his brilliant film Land and Freedom.
Though the Civil War is a constant inspiration for films and literature, it is a subject that is surprisingly absent from the current public consciousness, especially considering how recently Franco died. Unlike in Germany and Italy where the dictatorships were overthrown and their leaders dead by the end of WWII, fascism ended with the natural death of Franco who was protected by the Allied powers, especially the United States, after the war. They saw Franco as the lesser of two evils. They feared that if they helped to oust him that a communist government could enter into power, and with the Soviet Union as their new enemy, that was the last thing they wanted.
When Franco finally died a law called the Amnesty Law was passed, stating that no one could be prosecuted for any political crimes committed before the death of Franco. While it liberated the few Republicans who were left alive after decades of dictatorship, it was far more beneficial to officials in the fascist government from possible jail terms, and is popularly coined La Ley del Olvido, the Law of Forgetting. In this way Franco’s followers were easily able to continue with their governmental functions, and many formed part of the Conservative political party the People’s Party or PP that continues to be one of the two strongest parties in Spain.
Since many fascists still formed part of the democratic government after the end of the dictatorship, there was no historic reflection period as there was in Germany. Streets are still named after fascist generals and war criminals and no one really talks about it. The recent past, though horrific, has been covered up, and, while not in danger of being forgotten, it is, possibly even worse, in danger of being shrugged off. The past is past, let’s move on. This is especially dangerous given the recent resurgence of the far right political party Vox which is gaining traction as the first far right party to win seats in Congress since Franco’s death if you do not count the PP.
For these reasons it is great that Spanish cinema still looks towards the Civil War to analyze it. Mientras Dure la Guerra, the new film by Alejandro Anmenebar is about the author and philosopher Manuel de Unamuno who initially supports the nationalists until he realizes the real damage they are doing, and what they will do if they are to win. The most astounding part of the film to me were the historical descriptions before the end credits. The information was so simple that it is astounding that any of-age Spanish citizen would need it spelled out for them that Franco won the war and would become a dictator until the 1970s. Perhaps it was written for an international audience, though I doubt many people outside of Spain saw the film. If it was written for the Spanish public, it is terribly sad to think that the reality of the average Spanish citizen’s knowledge of their own history is so basic.
If these films are playing such an important educational role, it is essential that they accurately interpret the past for modern audiences. I believe Mientras Dure La Guerra could be a good starting point for teenage audiences, but lacks the bite it should have being made by such a renowned director. Nearly all works about the Civil War make sure that they depict the horrors depicted by both bands in the conflict, but sometimes they overdo it. It is, of course, fair and historically accurate to depict the brutality committed by both republicans and nationalists, yet sometimes filmmakers seem to soften events in order to not offend more conservative present day audiences. This tactic gives the message that yes, the fascists are the obvious bad guys, but the alternative is so deeply flawed that it is only better because it is not obviously horrific.
Of course no historic film can be one hundred percent accurate, but the way filmmakers choose to change or interpret events speaks volumes about the message they want to deliver to modern viewers, and it is clear that while Mientras Dure La Guerra condemns Franco and the nationalists, it is more against Franco than for the Republicans. What is most telling about films based on true events is how they relate themselves to the present, and the climax scene in Mientras Dure La Guerra is an overly emotionally thrilling critique not only of Franco, but of modern Vox nationalist Spanish politics.
In a very Speilbergian scene Unamuno delivers a stirring speech against the fascist powers that just arrived in Salamanca, showing that the intellectual who once defended and supported them, when put face to face with them, realizes how obscene they really are. At the end of the speech, the cartoonishly dastardly right hand man of Franco General José Millán-Astray shouts for him to stop, and in contrast to the speakers eloquent, logically argued critique, finds himself incapable of offering a rebuttal. Instead he begins to scream Arriba España! a common slogan also used today by Vox. And what does the audience do? Instead of being moved by evidence and fact carefully worded and passionately delivered, they find it easier to identify with these two words shouted by the General, which, of course, really mean nothing. Whether it is Arriba España or Make America Great Again, it is easier to move large groups of people with catchy slogans than with real arguments or policies. This scene brilliantly shows the power of populist national movements that are currently putting the Western world in danger for the first time since WWII. While the events of this speech did not occur as represented in the scene, it packs a punch that the rest of the film lacked, showing that misrepresentation can be both a cop out, and a brilliant way to get a point across.
The second film about the Civil War this year, La Trinchera Infinita has an equally effective final scene. The film tells the story of a fictionalized man named Higinio based on real cases of Republican fighters who had to hide underground during decades after the war for fear of being executed by the Franco government. Again, cinematically the film is not perfect, but it keeps the conversation of Spain’s fascist past going. And again, our protagonist is a republican but the filmmakers are sure to cast doubt in the viewers mind as to whether he was a snitch responsible for the murders of nationalists. He is our hero, but, the filmmakers seem to say, as he is a republican, he is not perfect.
The film shows us how he, his wife, and the small snippets of society we can witness through his hideout change over his more than 30 years of self incarceration. However, the film ends with another brilliant commentary on the present. Throughout the film one of Higinio’s neighbors tirelessly pursues him, never giving up on the fact that he is alive hiding somewhere. When he is finally convinced he is somewhere in his wife’s house he breaks in and investigates. Higinio’s son arrives just in time to throw him out, but not before he discovers the hiding place between two walls. He desperately argues with a Guardia Civil officer, a national police officer in an attempt to convince him that a war criminal is in hiding. But so many years have now passed since the end of the war that his warnings are brushed off as unimportant. Time has moved on, and soon after the government decrees that any ex wanted soldiers are now declared safe from prosecution. Higinio, so used to being in hiding, unable to step outside in 30 years, is hesitant and shaken about the idea of taking his first breath of fresh air. When he finally coaxes himself out he goes with his wife past his old house where he originally hid in a hole in the floor. As he passes by he peers into the window of his neighbor’s house. We get a shot of a shadowed figure hiding behind the curtain. The fascist is now the one shut inside while the republican is free to walk on the street again. However the fascist is not in danger of being locked up if he is seen. He does not have to hide his body, but his ideas, and he is waiting, like a monster in the shadows, ready to release them when the time comes again. As the resurgence of Vox has shown, perhaps that time is now. It is a wonderfully disturbing final shot that ties the story we just watched to the present day.
Though these films may be educational and emotionally stimulating, they lack the true power of the masterful 2018 documentary Silencio de Otros which gives a summary of the Civil War, follows the court cases of known war criminals who remain protected by the Law of Amnesty, and, most movingly, shows two old women who have been looking for the remains of their fathers, buried in unknown mass graves, with still no luck nor help from government officials. Their stories are tragic, and, in one moment, one of them shows a common looking field on the side of the highway. Here is one of those unmarked, unidentifiable mass graves. The horrors of the past are hidden in plain view, yet only those who remember can see it.
It is a remarkable film that surely should be required viewing in every Spanish High School. The past may be past, its scars may be healing, but they are not gone, nor will they ever completely disappear. As people forget and begin to follow nationalist populist movements we are in serious danger of committing past mistakes. This must not happen, and a cinema that honestly tells these stories will hopefully play its part in avoiding a dangerously scary future
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