Long live Spain!
José María Berzosa, France, 1976. 116′
A must-see film to understand how Spain has built its present by forgetting its past.
Documentary on the Spanish Civil War and its impact on Iberian society, with testimonies, interviews, and important audio and photographic documents. The memories of the victors and the vanquished are confronted through an ironic and undiscounted polyphony composed of newsreels from the period, excerpts from clandestine films, and interviews with figures from the regime and its opponents. This film is considered the most devastating analysis of the Franco regime ever made.
José-Maria Berzosa (1928-2018) was a great Spanish filmmaker who fled to France after escaping the dictatorship. Provocative, anti-Francoist, nonconformist: his films, produced by French public television, were characterized by irreverence and humor, and relentless formal research.