Spanish

Discussion Leader: David Gies (Commonwealth Professor of Spanish, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese)

Movie Title: Soldados de Salamina [Soldiers of Salamina] (2003)

Description: Based on the runaway best-selling Spanish novel by Javier Cercas (2001)—tries to resolve a mystery: who was the 18-year-old soldier who surprisingly refused to shoot an escaped captive (and Fascist enemy) at the end of Spain's bloody Civil War (1936-1939)? Did he know that he was saving the life of one of the major theorists of Franco's Fascism? Mixing historical fact and fiction, the journalist Lola Sánchez struggles to piece together information that will lead her to a now elderly (possibly  ceased?) hero. The film weaves together a sexy love story with 2 memories of the Civil War, the Transition to Democracy, and Spain's modern struggle to remember (or forget) its terrible past.

This event is co-organized by the Institute of World Languages and the Department of Media Studies. All films are free and subtitled in English. Films are screened from 6:30pm - 9:00pm.