Les 7 jours de janvier

Acting is so bad that it's hard to watch. Moves and gestures of the actors are so unnatural that preschool children would do a better job in a preschool play.

A sorry and disappointing display of a historic moments.

The commentary leaves out mention that during the dictatorship and prior to the death of Franco and for some years following it, unions were prohibited in Spain. Workers had no protection against management regardless of the industry. Granted that CCOO was the Union that was backed by the Spanish Communist Party. Regardless, the people that were murdered in the Atocha neighborhood Union headquarters were working on establishing a workers' union, and that was the work they were all, including the lawyers, focused on doing. It took until 1981 for the new Constitution to protect the freedom of peaceful assembly, and even after the new Constitution was enacted there were malcontents, members of the former ruling groups, police, right-wing activists, etc., who had difficulty abiding by the new freedoms guaranteed by the new Spanish Constitution. The occurrences of the seven days in January of 1977 evolved into a public awareness that changes were necessary. The movie itself is good, permeated with a mixture of impending doom, anxiety, and lots of breath-holding. Certainly an ode to democracy.

This is that sort of movies that you shouldn't watch if you don't have some knowledge about the time and the facts story is about (dictator Franco have just died and everyone was so nervous). Those were strange and dangerous days, there's no doubt about it. A group of left-winged lawyers were killed in cold blood for some of those fascists who wanted Spain to remain under the dominion of the rich, the Army, and the Catholic church. It's quite a good document that perfectly shows the way the people of both sides acted and thought.

As for the cinematographic significance, Juan A. Bardem filmed some good films ("Muerte de un ciclista"), but "Siete días de Enero" wasn't that remarkable. Some of the characters look like caricatures (specially the fascist ones), and there were some non-professional actors, what's always a bad idea.

Well, as I said before this is more like a historical document...

*My rate: 6/10