UNITED KINGDOM, FRANCE, BELGIUM
2016 – DCP – color – 100’

Regia Direction: Ken Loach

Sceneggiatura Screenplay: Jim Allen

Fotografia Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd

Montaggio Editing: Jonathan Morris

Scenografia Set design: Martin Johnson

Musica Music: George Fenton

Costumi Costumes: Ana Alvargonzález

Interpreti Cast: Ian Hart (David Carr), Rosana Pastor (Blanca), Frédéric Pierrot (Bernard), Tom Gilroy (Lawrence), Icíar Bollaín (Maite), Marc Martínez (Vidal)

Produttrice Producer: Rebecca O’Brien

Produzione Production: BBC Films, Canal+, Bim, TVE Televisión Española

SINOPSIS

Upon David Carr’s death, his granddaughter rummages through his belongings and discovers the story of who she thought had been just an English laborer from Liverpool. Among his mementos, in fact, are old articles about the Spanish Civil War, letters, memorabilia, and a handful of soil wrapped in a red scarf. Through these memorable items, she traces the story of her grandfather who, in 1936 as an unemployed young English laborer, registered with the Communist Party, chose to travel to Francoist Spain and join as a volunteer the fight against fascism. Arriving in Marseille after a long voyage by ship, David reached Barcelona by train and joined the POUM militia, The Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification, to fight on the Aragon front alongside comrades from all over Europe.

Critical Note

“Loach recounts without pessimistic gloom the struggle of individuals who play a decisive part in a social movement, acknowledging their defeats but never their impossibilities and always siding with the workers, the marginalized, using the tools of bourgeois culture. (…) Loach imbues his seemingly documentary style with an epic vastness, an unconventional immediacy full of vigor, a generous sobriety, and a great capacity to excite. The story also becomes the rigorous and retrospective vision of the birth of a unique movement, of an exemplary attempt at humanistic action carried out in the midst of war.” (Lietta Tornabuoni, L’Espresso 1/10/1995)

PREMI E FESTIVAL

1995 Cannes Film Festival – Competition: FIPRESCI Award,  Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
1995 European Film Award: European Film of the Year
1996 César Awards: Best Foreign Film
1996 Goya Awards:  Best New Actress (Rosana Pastor)

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