The Old Memory
Jaime Camino, Spain, 1977. 161′
Film-monument on the memory of the Republic and the Civil War: a masterpiece of intelligence and finesse.
Camino has assembled the testimonies, originally filmed as long monologues, in such a way as to make it seem as if these figures in contemporary Spanish history are listening to each other and even dialoguing with each other. The reconstruction of facts that emerges from this dialogue becomes complex, sometimes indeterminate, heterogeneous or divergent because of the variety of points of view. A law graduate, music teacher and film critic, Jaime Camino (1936-2015) devoted himself to literature and debuted as a director in the 1960s. Half of his feature films have as their theme the Civil War and its memory, approached from different genres and perspectives.