Land and Freedom
Land and Freedom (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20)
1995 / UK-Spain / 109 minutes
“Some of the most sincere and dedicated fighters against fascism have been murdered. But if you get this letter, understand that I regret nothing. Revolutions are contagious and had we succeeded here- and we could have done- we would have changed the world.”
Director: Ken Loach / Screenplay: Jim Allen / Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd / Music: George Fenton / Production: Rebecca O’Brien for Canal Plus / Cast: Ian Hart (David Carr), Rosana Pastor (Blanca), Iciar Bollain (Maite), Tom Gilroy (Lawrence), Marc Martinez (Juan Vidal), Frederic Pierrot (Bernard Goujon), Suzanne Maddock (Kim).
Land and Freedom opens in the then present day Liverpool of 1995. David Carr, a onetime hero of the Spanish Civil War, has just died and his granddaughter is piecing together his story from the few possessions he left behind. The rest of the narrative then unfolds in flashbacks explained by David’s letters from his time fighting against Franco’s forces in Spain.
In 1936, he sees photos of fascist atrocities at a union meeting and, fearing that his own country could soon go the same way as Germany, Italy and Spain, leaves his dead end life of poverty and unemployment to travel to Spain. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, David plans to join an international brigade but ends up serving in a POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista) regiment alongside Spaniards and other volunteers from Scotland, Ireland and America.
Unused to the heat and space of Spain and initially completely unable to speak the language, David eventually becomes an established POUM soldier, picks up enough Spanish to communicate and starts training new recruits. He also begins a passionate affair with female fighter Blanca (Rosana Pastor) until he’s wounded and sent to a hospital in Barcelona to recover.
When he leaves hospital David joins a communist international brigade as he’d originally planned and is then dragged into the infighting on the republican side of the war as his faction is manipulated by the Stalinists. Frustrated with fighting battles against other organisations that should all be on the same side, David leaves and rejoins the POUM where new rules have forced Blanca to become a nurse rather than a soldier (the unit’s other female fighter, Maite, has now been made it’s worst cook). But as divisions on their side widen, David begins to fear that the war may already be lost.
One of the best, most important and least seen European films of the ’90’s, Land and Freedom was written by Jim Allen as a response the resurgence of far right political parties on the continent. Based partly on Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, Ken Loach’s film recruited real Spanish Civil War veterans to serve as advisors and shot in the locations of the conflict’s actual battles.
Anchoring the story at the time of David’s death in the present, the film explains the war to a generation largely unfamiliar with it (for obvious reasons, it's not one of the establishment’s favourite ones) through the character of his granddaughter, who is only now learning about what happened through his letters.
The sixteen years of Conservative rule Britain had gone through by 1995 had hit the north hardest and the film appeared just as the Labour Party was usurped by Tony Blair, taking away any remaining chance of a socialist alternative and instead only offering people the “Choice” of either the blue or red Tories (before her death, Thatcher described Blair as her single greatest achievement). There is National Front graffiti on the stairs leading up to David’s flat and the ideals he fought for seem to have been forgotten until his granddaughter rediscovers them.
Speaking about the film in a 1995 documentary, Loach said “I think it’s the most important story of the twentieth century really. How there’s been this great force that could have changed things, could have changed the world. And it’s always been misled and sidetracked and obscured and obfuscated and led up a cul-de-sac. And the Spanish experience shows it very clearly and crystallises it. There have been several great opportunities in this century for the people to inherit the earth and that was one of them.
“And so the reason it didn’t happen is the interesting story to tell. Because it’s a remarkable story not many people know, of people who wanted to fight and how they were sold out. And simply to make a film where the fascists were the bad guys and everyone else were the good guys is, in the end, uninteresting. Because it’s too easy and it hides the real villainies that went on on the republican side. And that’s the tragedy”.
Loach would revisit similar territory with The Wind That Shakes the Barley in 2006, but because that film focussed on the Irish War of Independence, it was almost immediately condemned by the right wing press in Britain (as usual with such corporate media pile- on’s, most of it’s attackers hadn’t actually seen the film).
He’s been concentrating on today’s social problems in more recent years, despite constant attacks from all the usual suspects (like Jeremy Corbyn, he’s frequently accused of antisemitism for supporting Palestinian rights). But Loach did revisit the past for his excellent 2013 documentary The Spirit of ’45, which I’d recommend as essential viewing- especially during the current crisis.
1995 / UK-Spain / 109 minutes
“Some of the most sincere and dedicated fighters against fascism have been murdered. But if you get this letter, understand that I regret nothing. Revolutions are contagious and had we succeeded here- and we could have done- we would have changed the world.”
Director: Ken Loach / Screenplay: Jim Allen / Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd / Music: George Fenton / Production: Rebecca O’Brien for Canal Plus / Cast: Ian Hart (David Carr), Rosana Pastor (Blanca), Iciar Bollain (Maite), Tom Gilroy (Lawrence), Marc Martinez (Juan Vidal), Frederic Pierrot (Bernard Goujon), Suzanne Maddock (Kim).
Land and Freedom opens in the then present day Liverpool of 1995. David Carr, a onetime hero of the Spanish Civil War, has just died and his granddaughter is piecing together his story from the few possessions he left behind. The rest of the narrative then unfolds in flashbacks explained by David’s letters from his time fighting against Franco’s forces in Spain.
In 1936, he sees photos of fascist atrocities at a union meeting and, fearing that his own country could soon go the same way as Germany, Italy and Spain, leaves his dead end life of poverty and unemployment to travel to Spain. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, David plans to join an international brigade but ends up serving in a POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista) regiment alongside Spaniards and other volunteers from Scotland, Ireland and America.
Unused to the heat and space of Spain and initially completely unable to speak the language, David eventually becomes an established POUM soldier, picks up enough Spanish to communicate and starts training new recruits. He also begins a passionate affair with female fighter Blanca (Rosana Pastor) until he’s wounded and sent to a hospital in Barcelona to recover.
When he leaves hospital David joins a communist international brigade as he’d originally planned and is then dragged into the infighting on the republican side of the war as his faction is manipulated by the Stalinists. Frustrated with fighting battles against other organisations that should all be on the same side, David leaves and rejoins the POUM where new rules have forced Blanca to become a nurse rather than a soldier (the unit’s other female fighter, Maite, has now been made it’s worst cook). But as divisions on their side widen, David begins to fear that the war may already be lost.
One of the best, most important and least seen European films of the ’90’s, Land and Freedom was written by Jim Allen as a response the resurgence of far right political parties on the continent. Based partly on Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, Ken Loach’s film recruited real Spanish Civil War veterans to serve as advisors and shot in the locations of the conflict’s actual battles.
Anchoring the story at the time of David’s death in the present, the film explains the war to a generation largely unfamiliar with it (for obvious reasons, it's not one of the establishment’s favourite ones) through the character of his granddaughter, who is only now learning about what happened through his letters.
The sixteen years of Conservative rule Britain had gone through by 1995 had hit the north hardest and the film appeared just as the Labour Party was usurped by Tony Blair, taking away any remaining chance of a socialist alternative and instead only offering people the “Choice” of either the blue or red Tories (before her death, Thatcher described Blair as her single greatest achievement). There is National Front graffiti on the stairs leading up to David’s flat and the ideals he fought for seem to have been forgotten until his granddaughter rediscovers them.
Speaking about the film in a 1995 documentary, Loach said “I think it’s the most important story of the twentieth century really. How there’s been this great force that could have changed things, could have changed the world. And it’s always been misled and sidetracked and obscured and obfuscated and led up a cul-de-sac. And the Spanish experience shows it very clearly and crystallises it. There have been several great opportunities in this century for the people to inherit the earth and that was one of them.
“And so the reason it didn’t happen is the interesting story to tell. Because it’s a remarkable story not many people know, of people who wanted to fight and how they were sold out. And simply to make a film where the fascists were the bad guys and everyone else were the good guys is, in the end, uninteresting. Because it’s too easy and it hides the real villainies that went on on the republican side. And that’s the tragedy”.
Loach would revisit similar territory with The Wind That Shakes the Barley in 2006, but because that film focussed on the Irish War of Independence, it was almost immediately condemned by the right wing press in Britain (as usual with such corporate media pile- on’s, most of it’s attackers hadn’t actually seen the film).
He’s been concentrating on today’s social problems in more recent years, despite constant attacks from all the usual suspects (like Jeremy Corbyn, he’s frequently accused of antisemitism for supporting Palestinian rights). But Loach did revisit the past for his excellent 2013 documentary The Spirit of ’45, which I’d recommend as essential viewing- especially during the current crisis.
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