Land & Freedom

Spain/UK/Germany 1995 (subtitles)
109 minutes
Directed by Ken Loach
Leading players - Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Iciar Bollain

Synopsis

It's 1936 and David (Ian Hart), is unemployed and frustrated with life in Liverpool. Attending a rally in support of the embattled Republican government of Spain, he learns of the Republican fight against the Fascist revolt led by General Franco. David decides to head for Spain to join the Republican militia. As he begins his training with the International Brigade, he discovers that there is more to the War than simply 'us' against 'them'. The Republican cause is fractured along ideological lines...

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The film's director, Ken Loach, is known for extracting fine performances from his actors by filming in sequence and by not disclosing the climax of each scene until the moment of shooting. This technique is used to startling effect in 'Land and Freedom'. When Ian Hart describes the filming of a key episode, it seems like a war remembrance: "We knew somebody was going to get shot. There was no way everyone was going to get out alive. The person 'killed' was the last one any of us expected. And when she got shot, it was a complete surprise."

Ken Loach made his reputation in the 1960's with classic films like 'Kes' and 'Cathy Come Home'. Over the last 30 years his films have consistently treated social and political issues otherwise largely absent from British cinema. 'Land and Freedom' is one of the few films to explore the Spanish Civil War, and it brilliantly captures the excitement and the complexity of that time.