To watch the entire round table (83 minutes) online click here
The event "Shadows of the Past - Franco's Heritage in Spain" took place on October 28th, 2012 in Berlin at the famous Babylon Cinema and was organized by play loud! productions, The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, The Cervantes Institute and The German Association of Spanish Teachers.
The event was divided into two parts:
1) Unique preview of the documentary "Franco's Settlers". The film portraits the small town Llanos del Caudillo (The High Plains of the Führer) as if we were looking through a magnifying glass, reviewing the Spanish history since Franco took power until the present days. "Franco's Settlers" is a contemporary evaluation of the figure of the dictator Franco; a discreet and calm attempt to dissect recent Spanish history and to review how some Spaniards deal with the cruel heritage of their past.
The presentation of the film was strictly limited to guests invited by the above organizations and by no means a premiere because the film is not fully completed yet due to the lack of financing. The film got standing ovations and excellent press reviews.
Read a few here:
"The screening provoked a spontaneous ovation to honor a rigorous and humorous film".
Enrique Müller (El País)
"Franco's Settlers could be a very important contribution to how Spain deals with its dictatorship".
Andreas Fanizadeh (Die Tageszeitung)
"Rarely a movie has been so much in sync with its times. Franco's Settlers puts the finger on the sore spot."
Rafael Poch (La Vanguardia)
"A rigorous and emotional film. History told from the ground up. The film has to win the GOYA AWARD."
Sergi Doladé (Director of Medimed Filmmarket)
2) Round table with:
Felipe González (Spanish prime minister between 1982-1996)
Emilio Silva (President of the Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory)
Carlos Castresana (Spanish Supreme Court Prosecutor)
Fernando Suárez (former minister under Franco and member of the conservative Spanish People's Party) was also invited but refused to attend, arguing that he could not accept that the organizers considered that Franco came to power by a violent coup d'état. His full explanation can be seen in the film above.
The above mentioned guests discussed about the importance of the issue of dealing with the past for the national policy in Spain:
How much of historic memory is necessary to build the present and the future in Spain
What kind of traces of Francoism are left in Spanish society?
Can we still say that the Spanish process of democratization after Franco's death was exemplary?
During the debate the three participants on various occasions referred directly to the film:
"An exact x-ray of current Spain."
Emilio Silva
"A documentary that will surprise many people in Spain."
Felipe González
"I invite the filmmakers to Strasbourg to show it to the court as evidence."
Carlos Castresana
Click here for:
Press release
Press kit with cover, photographs and text (pdf 7.81 MB)
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