Madrid, Spain, 1936. The young Miguel Gila lives happily with his grandparents in a humble attic; but the outbreak of the Civil War forces him to go to fight.
Eight foreign characters recall their exploits and fears in Malaga, a paradise city that starts a revolution on July 18th 1936, as the military coup is stopped by popular rebellion, until February 9th 1937, when Mussolini troops take Malaga and put it under the rule of Franco. Seven months that shape the stark tale of a besieged city, the first capital to be conquered in Spanish Civil War and a prelude of WW2.
Juan Méndez Bernal leaves his house on the 9th of april of 1936 to fight in the imminent Spanish Civil War. 83 years later, his body is still one of the Grass Dwellers. The only thing that he leaves from those years on the front is a collection of 28 letters in his own writing.
Two unmarried women who have become pregnant by accident and are about to give birth meet in a hospital room: Janis, in her late-thirties, unrepentant and happy; Ana, a teenager, remorseful and frightened.
Spain, April 14, 1931. The Second Republic is born. From the beginning, the writer Miguel de Unamuno is considered one of the ethical pillars of the new regime. Five years later, on December 31, 1936, a few months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Unamuno dies at his home in Salamanca, capital of the rebel side, led by General Francisco Franco, and main center of dissemination of its propaganda apparatus.
This documentary collects, through the testimonies of five survivors, four women and one man, the tragedy experienced in “la Desbandá de Málaga and the subsequent exile to France. At the entrance of Queipo de Llano's troops into the city of Malaga, thousands of people, mostly women and children, fled to Almería along the road. They were bombed by sea, land and air by the German army, Mussolini's army and Franco's troops from the then Moroccan colony. Around five thousand people died on these two hundred kilometers of road. This exodus was known as “La desbandá”.
The role of historians is key in the history of humanity because their objective is to investigate the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. Furthermore, they often bring to light the history of unique individuals who, due to circumstances, have not received the recognition they deserve, especially in the case of women. This documentary focuses on the work of the historian Aïda Sánchez, who rescued Dolours Vives Rodon from oblivion, one of the pioneering women in piloting aircraft in our country and who played a vital role during the Spanish Civil War.
A disillusioned Australian photographer who once dreamed of glory as a documentarian of the human condition discovers his real grandfather was a heroic war correspondent who disappeared during the Spanish Civil War and, alongside a rebel journalist, goes on a quest to find him (and himself) before his nurse turned resistance fighter grandmother passes away to ultimately redeem himself.
In 1936, the war broke out in Spain and in 1937 the front was maintained for many months around Angiozar and Elgeta. It has often been talked about what men experienced, but women have also experienced the war. Through this documentary, their bravery and courage, both at the front and in resistance away from the front, has been highlighted and recalled.
The Asturian Valentín Vega is considered one of the most relevant photographers of the last century. He knew how to portray all the essential elements of daily life like no one else and at the same time exercise a devastating display of social criticism. After spending three years in prison for his political affiliation and managing to establish himself as a street photographer, he would continue to offer an unusual image of reality and daily life from the 1940s onwards.
Amelia Garayoa gives up a comfortable life in her fight for freedom, becoming swept up in the greatest conflicts of the 20th century.