Review Movies: Pick of the Indies | Ernest Hemmingway | Robert Capa | Henri-Cartier Bresson | Land and freedom | Spanish Civil War | Franco | BFI

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with DAN CARRIER
Published:18 June 2009

Pick of the Indies

THE words from the pens of Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell and John Dos Passos are well known, as are the photographs from Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
But the wealth of films inspired by the Spanish Civil War have not etched themselves on the collective memory in quite the same way. Now, a month-long season at the British Film Institute will help re-dress that imbalance.
The war was for a long time a taboo subject for the Spanish film industry. Work telling the true story of the war was violently suppressed by Franco’s dictatorship, their makers censored and hounded.
But after Franco’s death in 1975, film-makers suddenly found they had the artistic liberty to bring to life on screen those dark days – and many have been put on a super bill.
As well as featuring offerings such as Ken Loach’s tear-jerker Land and Freedom and Cartier-Bresson’s first foray into moving images with his film Return To Life, the festival also includes documentaries and news reels from both sides, showing the role propaganda played in the war.
• For tickets for the festival at the BFI Southbank, call 020 7928 3232

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