Spain 1936

The documentary Espagne 1936 was produced by Ciné-Liberté for the Subsecretariat of Propaganda of the Republican Government. Edited by Jean-Paul Le Chanois, with commentary and intertitles by Pierre Unik, it was supervised by Luis Buñuel during the scriptwriting, editing, and sound design phases in his capacity as a delegate of the Spanish embassy for Information and Propaganda. 

The film is a compilation (cross-section), created with the aim of drawing the attention of the international community to the devastating effects of the Spanish Civil War on the population. The film footage comes, among other sources, from the French newsreels Éclair Journal and Gaumont Actualités, material shot by Soviet cameramen Roman Karmen and Boris Makaseiev, as well as newsreels from Laya Film, which was affiliated with the Propaganda Commissariat of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The film also includes shots from fictional films, photographs by Robert Capa and Chim, drawings by Helios Gómez, and animated maps and diagrams by Griffoul.

The title card of the prologue makes the film’s aims perfectly clear: “Cinema has the duty to follow the events of the world, to reproduce them, to disseminate them, to bring them to the attention of people in all countries. This documentary on the Spanish war, this unique report, has no other purpose than to serve the cause of history.”

The final segment includes, within the stylistic conventions of propaganda discourse, a series of allegorical images that combine the epic and the heroic spirit of the Spanish people. It features successive shots of anonymous individuals representing the soldier and the peasant, culminating with a woman brandishing the flag symbolizing the Republic—a reference to the French national emblem Marianne. Riego’s Anthem serves as the musical background to the entire sequence.

Spain 1936 was completed by February 1937 and was distributed its distribution was by the Communist cooperative Ciné-Liberté. The film was presented to pro-Republican circles in Paris in March 1937, and the Spanish version premiered at the Cine Actualidades in Madrid in June of the same year, although it was only scheduled for one week and in morning screenings.

There were a number of screenings at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 Paris International Exposition, with Luis Buñuel serving as head of the film section. Formal and ideological parallels can be drawn between the images of the bombings in Spain 1936 and Guernica by Pablo Picasso, which was commissioned by the government for the pavilion.

Spain 1936 was followed by a second compilation film, Spain 1937, with a script by Juan Vicéns. It too was produced by the Subsecretariat of Propaganda and distributed by Ciné-Liberté.

AP