The paradoxes of film and the recovery of historical memory: Vicente Aranda’s works on the Spanish Civil War

This essay contrasts the popular and artistically-respected films of the Catalan director Vicente Aranda, who is considered friendly to the legacy of Spanish anarchism, with other recent and past films on the Spanish civil war of 1936–39. It describes and evaluates Aranda’s ‘war trilogy:’ Si te dicen que caí, 1989, (The Fallen, re-released as Aventis), the TV serial Los jinetes del alba, 1990 (Riders of the Dawn), and Libertarias, 1996.