View source for Land and Freedom (film)

{{Short description|1995 historical drama film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Land and Freedom
| image          = Land and freedom.jpg
| caption        = Movie poster from Ken Loach's ''Land and Freedom''
| director       = [[Ken Loach]]
| producer       = [[Rebecca O'Brien]]
| writer         = [[Jim Allen (playwright)|Jim Allen]]
| narrator       =
| starring       = [[Ian Hart]]
| music          = [[George Fenton]]
| cinematography = [[Barry Ackroyd]]
| editing        = Jonathan Morris
| studio         =
| distributor    = [[Curzon Film|Artificial Eye]] (United Kingdom)<ref name="lum">{{cite web|title=Film #253: Land and Freedom|work=[[Lumiere (website)|Lumiere]]|access-date=22 May 2021|url=http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=253}}</ref><br />Alta Films (Spain)<ref name="lum" /><br />Sputnik Film (Germany)<ref>{{cite web|title=Land and Freedom|website=[[filmportal.de]]|access-date=10 September 2021|url=https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/land-and-freedom_ea43d4a71b075006e03053d50b37753d}}</ref><br />[[Sony Pictures Releasing|Columbia TriStar Films Italia]] (Italy)<ref name="lum" /><br />Diaphana Films (France)<ref name="lum" />
| released       = {{Film date|1995|10|06|df=yes}}
| runtime        = 109 minutes
| country        = United Kingdom<br/>Spain<br/>Germany<br/>Italy<br/>France
| language       = English<br/>Spanish<br/>Catalan
| budget         = about £2,500,000<ref>{{cite web|title=MOVIES : Low Budget, High Ideals : Ken Loach makes striking films with politically timely themes on a far-from-Hollywood budget. But can 'Land and Freedom' expand his U.S. fan club beyond cinephiles and other directors?|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-03-31-ca-53110-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=20 July 2022|date=31 March 1996}}</ref>
| gross          = $228,800
}}
'''''Land and Freedom''''' (or '''''Tierra y Libertad''''')<ref>See ''[[Tierra y Libertad (disambiguation)]]'' for the meaning of this phrase.</ref> is a 1995 film directed by [[Ken Loach]] and written by [[Jim Allen (playwright)|Jim Allen]]. The film narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]], who decides to fight in the [[Spanish Civil War]] for the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|republicans]], a coalition of [[Socialism|Socialists]], [[Communism|Communists]] and [[Anarchism|Anarchists]] against a nationalist coup d'état. The film won the [[FIPRESCI]] International Critics Prize and the [[Prize of the Ecumenical Jury]] at the [[1995 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3365/year/1995.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Land and Freedom |access-date=4 September 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}}</ref> The film was also nominated for the [[Palme d'Or]] at Cannes.
==Plot==
The film's narrative unfolds in a long [[Flashback (literary technique)|flashback]]. Elderly David Carr has died of a heart attack and his granddaughter discovers old letters, newspapers and other documents in his room: what we see in the film is what he had lived.
Carr, a young unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party, leaves [[Liverpool]] and travels to Spain to join the [[International Brigade]]s. He crosses the Spanish border in Catalonia and coincidentally ends up enlisted in a [[Workers' Party of Marxist Unification|POUM]] [[militia]] commanded by Lawrence, on the [[Aragon]] front. In this company, as in all POUM militias, men and women – such as the young and enthusiastic Maite – fight together. In the following weeks and months he becomes friends with other foreign volunteers, like the Frenchman, Bernard and the Irishman, Coogan and the latter's girlfriend Blanca – with whom David Carr later falls in love – also a member of POUM, and also the [[ideologue]] of his group.
After being wounded and recovering in a hospital in [[Barcelona]], he finally joins – in accordance with his original plan and against the opinion of Blanca – the government-backed International Brigades, and he encounters the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] propaganda and repression against POUM members and anarchists; he then returns to his old company, only to see them rounded up by a government unit requiring their surrender: in a brief clash Blanca is killed. After her funeral he returns to Great Britain with a red [[neckerchief]] full of Spanish earth.
Finally the film returns to the present and we see Carr's funeral, in which his granddaughter throws the Spanish earth into his grave after speaking lines from "The Day Is Coming",<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1885/chants/poems/poem1.htm Chants for Socialists by William Morris – 1. The Day is Coming], [[Marxist Internet Archive]]</ref> a poem by [[William Morris]].
<blockquote>''Join in the battle wherein no man can fail,''
<br/>''For whoso fadeth and dieth, yet his deed shall still prevail.''</blockquote>
Afterwards she performs a [[raised fist]] salute.
==Cast==
* [[Ian Hart]] – David Carr
* [[Rosana Pastor]] – Blanca
* [[Frédéric Pierrot]] – Bernard Goujon
* [[Tom Gilroy]] – Lawrence
* [[Icíar Bollaín]] – Maite
* Marc Martínez – Juan Vidal
* Andrés Aladren – Militia member
* Sergi Calleja – Militia member
* Raffaele Cantatore – Militia member
* Pascal Demolon – Militia member
* [[Paul Laverty]] – Militia member
* [[Suzanne Maddock]] – Kim (David's granddaughter)
==Themes==
According to Ken Loach, the most important scene of the film is the debate in an [[Deliberative assembly|assembly]] of a village successfully liberated by the militia. People from the actual village where the film was shot play peasant parts in the film and express their thoughts freely (despite language difficulties), and a debate ensues about whether or not to [[collectivise|collectivize]] the village land and that of the recently shot priest. An American with the POUM militia argues that the war effort must come first, suggesting that collectivization and other revolutionary actions might hamper that effort. He mentions that if such actions and the slogans accompanying them continue, they will not gain the support of powerful capitalist regimes such as the United States and Britain{{Clarify|date=December 2009}} ("You're scaring them", he says). The necessity of a contemporaneous war and revolution is expressed by a German militiaman, who says that 'in [[Weimar Republic|Germany]] revolution was postponed and now [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] is in power'. In the end the villagers vote for collectivization, thereby taking steps on a far-left path. In the anarchist and socialist controlled areas this kind of expropriation of land was common, as the civil war was accompanied by a [[Spanish Revolution of 1936|social revolution]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.historytoday.com/paul-preston/spanish-civil-war-1936-1939| author=Paul Preston| title=The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939| publisher=History Today| access-date=27 March 2014}}</ref>
As in the above scene, various languages: Spanish, English and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] are spoken throughout the film, and subtitles are used selectively. Carr arrives in Spain without knowing any Spanish, but gradually picks it up – and luckily for him English is the ''[[lingua franca]]'' in his militia.
The social revolution was opposed by both the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-supported communists and the liberal republicans and as the war progressed, the government and the communists were able to leverage their access to Soviet arms to restore government control over the war effort, both through diplomacy and force. An historical event, the bloody fight between Republicans and Anarchists for controlling the [[Telefónica]] building in Barcelona, has been chosen by Loach as an emblem of this internal conflict (See [[Barcelona May Days]]). Carr's disenchantment starts from this meaningless fight, which he fails to understand because both groups were supposed to be on the same side. At one point he is guarding the Communist Party headquarters in Barcelona and engages in banter across the barricades with the anarchists opposite. He asks a [[Manchester|Mancunian]] among them "Why aren't you over here with us?" In reply his compatriot asks him the same question and Carr answers "I don't know".
Another important moment inspired by actual events is the execution of a village [[Holy orders|priest]] for acting in favor of the fascist side: he has broken the seal of [[Confession (religion)#Confession of sins|confessions]], telling the fascists where the anarchists were hiding and causing their deaths. The priest is also shown to have a bruised shoulder from firing a rifle.
Most critics and viewers noted the similarity between the story narrated in this film and [[George Orwell]]'s book ''[[Homage to Catalonia]]'', in which the author wrote one of the more famous accounts of the war, that of his own experience as a volunteer in the [[ILP Contingent]], part of the POUM militia.
==Soundtrack==
* [[A las Barricadas]] – Courtesy of the [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo]]
* [[The Internationale|La Internacional]] (1888) – Written by [[Pierre De Geyter]]
* A Las Mujeres/"Ramona" (1928) – Music by [[Mabel Wayne]] – Lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert
* [[Si me quieres escribir]] – Written by Juan Ignacio Cuadrado Bueno
==Reception==
===Critical response===
The review aggregator website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports {{a or an|{{RT data|score}}}} approval rating based on {{RT data|count}} reviews, with an average rating of {{RT data|average}}, {{RT data|as of|y|m|d}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/land_and_freedom|title=''Land and Freedom'' (1995)|publisher=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}}{{RT data|edit}}</ref>
David Armstrong, cinema critic for ''[[The San Francisco Examiner]]'', stated in [[SF Gate]] that "Veteran British director [[Ken Loach]] continues to toil in the fields of a now largely, and unjustly, eclipsed tradition: European social realism. Working in a near-documentary style that emphasizes the grit of everyday life, the cynical secretiveness of political leaders and the nobility of small people with big dreams, Loach makes feature films of uncommon gravity and integrity".<ref>{{ cite news|last=Armstrong|first=David|title=Land and Freedom': Unique Story of War|url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Land-and-Freedom-unique-story-of-war-3146996.php|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=19 April 1996|access-date=17 August 2017}}</ref>
[[Philip French]] writing in ''[[The Observer]]'' said, "scripted by his regular collaborator, Jim Allen, Loach's movie is a visceral, emotional and intellectual experience, and among the finest films of the decade.".<ref>{{cite news|last=French|first=Philip|title=Idealism and illusions|url=https://www.theguardian.com/observer/screen/story/0,6903,595331,00.html|work=The Observer|date=8 October 1995|access-date=17 August 2017}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[List of Spanish Civil War films]]
==Awards and nominations==
{| class="wikitable" style="border:2px #aaa solid; font-size:90%;"
|-  style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"
! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Awards
|-  style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"
! Award
! Category
! Name
! Outcome
|-
|rowspan=1|[[Cannes Film Festival]]
|[[FIPRESCI Award]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|-
|-
|[[Cannes Film Festival]]
|[[Prize of the Ecumenical Jury]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|-
|[[Cannes Film Festival]]
|[[Palme d'Or]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|rowspan=1|[[European Film Awards]]
|[[Best Film]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|-
|-
|[[César Awards]]
|[[César Award for Best Foreign Film|Best Foreign Film]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|-
|rowspan=1|[[British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA Awards]]
|Best British Film
|[[Ken Loach]] and Rebecca O'Brien
|{{nom}}
|-
|-
|rowspan=1|[[Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards]]
|[[Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film]]
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|-
|[[French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Awards]]
|Best Foreign Film
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|-
|[[Nastro d'Argento]]
|Best Foreign Director
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{nom}}
|-
|[[Sant Jordi Awards]]
|Best Spanish Film
|[[Ken Loach]]
|{{won}}
|}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0114671}}
* {{Screenonline title|557111}}
* [http://irelandscw.com/docs-LFReview1996.htm  Film reviewed by Wilebaldo Solano], the former General Secretary of the [[Iberian Communist Youth|POUM Youth]], reprinted from [https://web.archive.org/web/20110725131307/http://www.revolutionary-history.co.uk/ ''Revolutionary History''], Vol. 6, No. 2–3, pp.&nbsp;275–6, summer 1996
* [http://irelandscw.com/docs-LF.htm A series of reviews including some hostile ones by Civil War veterans]
{{s-start}}
{{s-ach|aw}}
{{succession box
| title=[[European Film Awards|European Film Award]] for Best European Film
| years=1995
| before=''[[Lamerica]]''
| after=''[[Breaking the Waves]]''}}
{{end}}
{{Ken Loach}}
{{César Award for Best Foreign Film}}
{{European Film Award for Best Film}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1995 films]]
[[Category:1990s war films]]
[[Category:British war films]]
[[Category:Spanish war films]]
[[Category:1990s Spanish-language films]]
[[Category:Catalan-language films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language Spanish films]]
[[Category:Spanish Civil War films]]
[[Category:International Brigades|*]]
[[Category:POUM|*]]
[[Category:Anarchism in Spain]]
[[Category:Films about anti-fascism]]
[[Category:Films about anarchism]]
[[Category:Films about communism]]
[[Category:Films set in Barcelona]]
[[Category:Spanish multilingual films]]
[[Category:British multilingual films]]
[[Category:Best Foreign Film César Award winners]]
[[Category:European Film Awards winners (films)]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ken Loach]]
[[Category:Films scored by George Fenton]]
[[Category:Plays by Jim Allen]]
[[Category:PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films]]
[[Category:Gramercy Pictures films]]
[[Category:1990s political films]]
[[Category:1995 multilingual films]]
[[Category:1990s British films]]
[[Category:1990s Spanish films]]
[[Category:English-language war films]]