Saturday 15 March at 21:45

The film is based on a true story from 1913, when two friends from a village in Cuenca were tortured by the Guardia Civil and forced to confess to a crime they had not committed. This is the story of a friendship broken by the intervention of the authorities, a rural portrait of early 20th century Spain, and a reflection on who suffers from the collusion between the clerical power, the military and the upper classes when it comes to law enforcement. Made in 1979, the film was confiscated by the Home Office, which deemed it an "insult to the Corps". The only film to be censored even though Spain had already become a republic. When it was finally shown it became very popular, which shows the problems of transition regarding freedom of expression between the old Frankish institutions and the new democracies.

Introduction by Carlos Riveriego, Program Director-Deputy Director of the Filmoteca Espanola