Soldados de Salamina

David Trueba's film is somewhat different from other Spanish movies about the Civil War of the 30s. Usually the stories are about the heroes of the left side, who were defeated at the end, while this story is about one of the Fascists whose life is spared by a militiaman that in theory was his enemy.

I must confess that not having read the original novel, I have no basis of comparison, but the theme about knowing what really happened in that particular episode the young reporter is trying to discover is intriguing.

This is a part documentary, part fiction and a tale from the real survivors of the conflict. We don't get to know what really happened until the very end of the film as the old soldier in the nursing home meets the writer who has gone to him to find out first hand the truth.

The director seems to be saying that heroes were the ones that had the decency to live by what their conscience dictated, rather than by what they were told to do.

The Javier Cerca's book in which this film is based was already an excellent material to make a movie, and director David Trueba doesn't deceive at all the expectations generated.

Trueba's screenplay introduces a lot of significant changes (the main one is the gender of the protagonist, now a woman, a role wonderfully performed by Ariadna Gil), and far from betraying the novel's spirit, all of these changes add a lot of deepness to the story.

As far as the direction is concerned, Trueba mixes admirably fiction, the recreation of historical events and archive material. The main character's investigation about a surprising event at the end of the Spanish Civil War is filmed under a realistic light and with a documentary approach, and that is in harmony with the rest of the textures used to recreate historical facts.

The whole cast deserve special mention, too.

All in all, "Soldados de Salamina" is one of the most interesting Spanish films shown to date. Not only a notable cinematic work, but also a touching story about the nonsense of war and the little acts that ordinary people do in order to redeem our imperfect human condition.

The film examines the apathy that generally exists among Spain's youth regarding the civil war, which ended in 1939 leaving wounds that in many cases still have not healed. Few people who fought in it still survive today, and those who lived during the post-war era learned not to speak openly about it. The result is that most of today's youth are indifferent to it.

Lola, the main character, reacts with disdain and exasperation when asked to write an article inspired by the civil war for the newspaper where she works. However, a reader's response to that article puts her on the trail of a mystery and as she learns more she becomes more and more interested in what motivated those who fought. The things Lola's interviewees tell her serve as a sort of CLIFF's NOTES for those that have not studied this history. The fact that the movie does not openly take a side with respect to the war is a first in Spanish films about it.

The scenes of Lola's modern life juxtaposed with those of the events she investigates accentuate the changes in Spanish society nearly seventy years later. The slow pace and detached manner of interaction used for today also seems to make a statement about how we live our lives versus the boisterous NODO footage and apparently handheld shots of the past.

The plot itself is not overly intriguing; however, the things that the characters say are extremely moving and hopefully might even inspire a few to start talking to their grandparents before it is too late. Anyone who learns even a little of what happened cannot remain indifferent.

David Trueba makes a lot more sense of the novel than did Javier Cercas when he wrote it. The novel is like an endless loop of the author telling the story of how the fascist Rafael Sánchez-Mazas escaped execution. In the novel, this brief historical episode is repeated endlessly, to the point of it being maddeningly repetitive. The film spares us this repetition just as the fascist's life was spared.

The pity was that the fascist Rafael Sánchez-Mazas didn't die in a firing squad. The typical path of cowards is to foment war and then conveniently side-step and actual combat. Dick Cheney, Donald Trump, George Bush are only a few modern examples.

The movie, like the book, chronicles a reporter's investigation into how the above-mention fascist escaped a firing squad in the waning days of the Spanish Civil War, and the story about how a Republican soldier spared his life when he was discovered in the woods near the site of the failed execution. Why did the soldier not kill or capture the fascist? I don't find that a particularly interesting question, certainly not enough for a novel, bit almost enough for a decent film.

When the professor and writer Lola Sánchez (Ariadna Gil) is assigned to write a column in the newspaper about the Spanish Civil War, she researches and finds for the first time about the shooting of Rafael Sánchez Mazas (Ramon Fontserè). Lola has lost her passion for writing, and she becomes intrigued about Rafael, who was a writer and journalist that returned to Spain from the Italy of Mussolini and founded the fascist party Spanish Falange, becoming adviser of the leader Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. When the lefts won the election in 1936, the Falange became illegal, and later there was a military coup d'stat. Rafael miraculously escaped from the shooting and was spared by an unknown soldier. Lola decides to write a book about the historic event and to disclose the identity of the unknown soldier. But her acquaintance Conchi (María Botto) advises that her work is affected by her lack of passion. When Lola reads a work of a student about the heroic former soldier Miralles (Joan Dalmau), Lola becomes obsessed to find him and see of he is connected to the event.

"Soldados de Salamina" is a great movie that discloses parts of the dark period of the Civil War in Spain in an excellent screenplay, with two parallel stories, one fictional in the present days and the other true in 1939. Like the lead character, I just know very few things about this bloody war and I had never read anything about Rafael Sánchez Mazas, therefore I had the chance to learn a little about the history of this nation. I believe that the last movie I saw of Ariadna Gil was "Los Peores Años de Nuestra Vida", and I am glad to see this gorgeous actress in another excellent performance. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Soldados de Salamina" ("Soldiers of Salamina")