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One of the great movies on the Spanish Civil War, is Libertarias:
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It is 1936, and the Spanish Civil War has just begun. María (Ariadna Gil), a young nun, is forced to leave the convent after the arrival of the revolutionary troops in Barcelona. She takes refuge in a bordello, where the women are being "drafted" for the "Free Women" organization under the leadership of Pilar (Ana Belén). A crippled medium called Floren (Victoria Abril) joins them, and the odd platoon takes off for Zaragoza, a bloody battlefield.
Libertarias, the most spectacular film epic ever made in Spain, is a project which had been in gestation by its filmmaker for almost two decades. Anchoring his narrative on a group of women who fought in the Spanish Civil War, Aranda has gathered an extraordinary female cast who do great honor to their fascinating characters: Ana Belén as Pilar portrays the pure feminist warrior, passionate and fiery; Loles León as Charo is the hooker with the heart of gold; Ariadna Gil is María, the Holy Innocent. Miguel Bosé is a former priest, in total moral upheaval. And finally, the unmatchable Victoria Abril takes over the film as the psychic who can foretell the future.
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Aranda recreates with his special brand of realism, not only the physical details of the war -- the Zaragoza scenes are marvelous recreations of battle -- but also the defeated political ideals.
An overwhelming climax crowns this ambitious production, in which Vicente Aranda achieves a glorious epic poem about war and the role that women can, and should, play in such an event.
The full movie (of just over 2 hours) can be viewed here, more on Mujeres Libres here.
Regrettably the content of the link has been blocked for copyright reasons. I am going to search for a copy on sale somewhere and hope that it has English sub-titles.
ReplyDeleteLa lucha continuará!
Marie Marshall
Scotland
... and as it happens the cheapest I can find it is about $75US! There is something ironic about that, given the subject matter, and given that revolutionary Catalonia abolished money!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS6o_PdIoZw
ReplyDeletebad quality, but ...
its been deleted as well gosh people are so greedy ffs
Delete