Marking the 82nd anniversary of Spanish Civil War, a film screening was organised at Dylogg Coworking on Sunday. The movie based on Spanish Civil War, land and Freedom was screened.
land and Freedom is a 1995 film directed by Ken loach and written by Jim Allen.
The film's narrative unfolds in a long flashback. David Carr has died at an old age and his granddaughter discovers old letters, newspapers and other documents in his room: what we see in the film is what he had lived.
Carr, a young unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party, leaves liverpool and travels to Spain to join the International Brigades. He crosses the Spanish border in Catalonia and coincidentally ends up enlisted in a POUM militia commanded by lawrence, in the Aragon front. In the following weeks and months he becomes friends with other foreign volunteers, like the French Bernard and the Irish Coogan, and the latter's girlfriend Blanca with whom David Carr later falls in love also a member of POUM.
After being wounded and recovering in a hospital in Barcelona, he finally joins in accordance with his original plan and against the opinion of Blanca the government-backed International Brigades, and he encounters the Soviet propaganda and repression against POUM members and anarchists; he then returns to his old company, only to see them rounded up by a government unit requiring their surrender: in a brief clash Blanca is killed. After her funeral he returns to Great Britain with a red neckerchief full of Spanish earth.
The film won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Indians also participated in the civil war against Fascism, including Gopal Mukund Huddar who joined the International Brigades under the name ‘John Smith’ in October 1937. Indians also supplied ambulance and formed an aid committee which provided food.