Land and Freedom

no pasaran!

Terra e Liberdade estreava há 25 anos na Espanha. https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/land-and-freedom/

Was the second movie of Ken Loach. I don't like too much and maybe my expectation was so huge and maybe I get bored from the socialist story.

About as Loachy as Loach gets, there's no more quintessential a setting for his usually insinuated anarcho-socialist leanings than Civil War Spain - though his main concern here is with how the revolutionaries turned against each other when they should have cooperated. He manages some interesting and realistic scenes here and there, but by and large it's a little too ideological (and hence predictable) to really grab me.

An excellent depiction of the three-way conflict in the Spanish Civil War. The true revolutionaries - the anarchists and labour militias - were forced into an uneasy cooperative effort with the Stalinists due to their shared goal of defeating Franco. The complexities of this conflict are clarified subtly by Loach's style; most of the storytelling emerges out of passionate interpersonal conflicts and lucid group conversations. As a result, you feel for both the cause and those involved.

83.500

It feels like there are angles that could have been explored more - especially with the contemporary setting - but I'm pretty sure Loach made the right decision. What there is is a very effective story about the reasons for fighting, and the reasons for losing.

absouletly fantastic. classy ken loach.