Libertarians

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Movie
Original title Libertarians
Country of production Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 1996
length 202 minutes
Rod
Director Vicente Aranda
script Vicente Aranda
production Andrés Vicente Gómez
music José Nieto
camera Juan Amorós , José Luis Alcaine
occupation
The historical subject of the film: the anarcho-syndicalist Spanish women's organization Mujeres libres . Photo: Gerda Taro (1936)

Libertarias (English Distribution: Freedom Fighters) is a Spanish film from 1996. Directed by Vicente Aranda ; The main actresses are Ana Belén , Victoria Abril and Ariadna Gil . Set up as an epic historical drama with almost three and a half hours of playing time, the film thematizes the role of the anarchists in the Spanish civil war - especially Mujeres Libres , the women's organization of the CNT .

action

The film begins in July 1936 with the crackdown on the Francoist military coup in Barcelona . The parallel establishment of a provisional, anti-fascist people's government is staged with strongly emotional images. In a short cut sequence, the opening credits contrast historical basic information in text form, documentary material and staged film mass scenes. In the opening scene, which leads to the actual plot, activists of the CNT - FAI topple a stone cross from a church tower - a cinematic symbol for the intention of the anarchist militia officers to end the old time and create a new one. The focus of the film is four different women - the young nun Maria (Ariadna Gil), the two prostitutes Floren (Victoria Abril) and Charo (Loles León) and the militant feminist Pilar (Ana Belén). On the occasion of a search in a brothel , Pilar held an agitation speech in front of the women in which she appealed to the morality of the women and tried to mobilize them for the anti-fascist defense struggle.

As the story progresses, Floren and Charo Pilars' brigade join the Mujeres Libres, the women's organization of the anarcho-syndicalist union CNT; likewise the nun Maria, who as a devout Catholic initially only sought refuge and found shelter in Florens brothel. The four women become militiamen. As a result, they also take part in armed battles against the Francoist insurgents. The different characters of the three women create an arc of tension in the film. Another is the self-assertion of the four women against traditional ideas in their own camp - also within the Mujeres Libres. While some try to persuade Pilar and her friends to work in the kitchen and leave the fight to the men, others - a committee deputy whose role reminds them of the CNT's temporary member of the central republican government, Federica Montseny - explicitly encouraged to take part in the common struggle as militiamen.

The epic type of representation, in which the different levels of conflict are made comprehensible through exemplary portrayed roles, continues in the further course of the plot. Miguel Bosé , for example, plays the role of an apostate priest who is committed to the republic , but at the same time has to deal with his conflicts of conscience. The war itself - specifically: the deployment of Pilar's unit on the Aragon Front near Saragossa - demands the utmost from those involved. The film does not gloss over or romanticize the war against the putschists. Rather, he depicts the civil war years between 1936 and 1939 as a dramatic epoch which, in addition to political hope, resulted in suffering and misery and demanded existential decisions from many of those affected. The realistic description was ensured, among other things, by the cast of historically guaranteed figures. The Argentine actor Héctor Colomé plays the charismatic FAI militia commander Buenaventura Durruti in a supporting role .

criticism

In Spain the film received favorable to good reviews. The magazine Arte y cultura particularly praised the realism of the film: “Aranda creates his own kind of realism, not only because of the level of detail with which the war is depicted - the Zaragoza scenes are wonderfully haunting battle reenactments. But they also show how war defeats political ideals. ”The Trotskyist- oriented New Internationalist Magazine wrote:“ Vicente Aranda Libertarias opens up in the euphoria of the Spanish Revolution. ”The film tells a compelling story with poignant characters so that one can terrible end of the war almost forgot. However, the plot contains some gaps in detail as well as interim episodes that leave behind some irritations. The juxtaposition of atrocity Moroccan mercenaries here and anti-fascist volunteers there was also judged by the magazine to be too simplistic and potentially suitable for fueling racist resentment.

Historian Caroline Rothauge stated that the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War were highly idealized. Unlike Ken Loach's film Land and Freedom , to which Libertarias refers both as a reference and in a delimiting way, Aranda's film does not name the contradictions with which the activists of the Mujeres Libres were actually confronted. Instead, Libertarias rely on idealization and increase this additionally through the use of sacred elements such as musical underlay.

particularities

  • Director Vicente Aranda, born in 1926, is a proven opponent of the Francoist military dictatorship due to his biography . In 1952 he emigrated to Venezuela . In 1964 he returned to Spain and founded his own production company there.
  • Music: Used for the film leader film music composer José Nieto , the piece A Las Barricadas - on the Polish workers' song Warschawjanka based anthem of the CNT. Ana Belén, leading actress and besides her acting, also a musician, played a guitar-based, less choral version with the Spanish singer and songwriter Víctor Manuel .
  • With almost three and a half hours and implemented with an above-average budget, Libertarias is one of the most spectacular Spanish film projects. An English version was also published under the title Freedom Fighters . A German-language version is not yet available.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Libertarias ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / arteycultura.sagrado.edu archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Film review on the Arte y cultura website, accessed on May 1, 2012 (Spanish and English)
  2. Libertarias ( Memento of July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), review in New Internationalist Magazine, January-February 1999 issue, accessed on May 1, 2012
  3. Caroline Roth eye: Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War and early Franco dictatorship in film and television. V&R Unipress, Göttingen 2014. ISBN 978-3-8471-0210-6 . Extracts online at Google Books

literature

Web links