The two memories
Jorge Semprún. France, 1972. 141′
Comparing the memories of both sides in search of a conciliatory position, the film offers a comprehensive view of the historical and ideological stakes of the conflict.
“There was amnesty and then there was amnesia. Amnesty, of course, is sanctioned by law, but amnesia cannot be imposed by law.” Having obtained permission in 1972 to travel legally to Spain for the first time, Semprún presented his project to the authorities as a film about the future of Spain and Europe. The interviews were shot on Super 16mm during the summer of 1972, in France and, in semi-clandestinity, in Spain. The film was never shown in Spanish cinemas.
Memory, the possibility of sharing lived experience, was central to the concerns of Jorge Semprún (1923-2011), a great writer who lived through exile in his early teens, the Resistance, deportation to Buchenwald and then clandestine involvement at the highest levels of the Spanish Communist Party under Franco’s dictatorship.