42/30
Nana was written by Manuel de Falla
Tale
Buried memories of the Spanish Civil War emerge when a woman searches for the remains of her grandfather and discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher in Tarragona. I was very lucky to find this film on a Singapore Airlines flight!
He comes up against the local priest, a dead autocrat, and then gets drawn into the dictatorship and Franco’s troops that precede the Spanish Civil War
It tells the story of a beautiful progressive teacher, a follower of the little-known and somewhat revolutionary "Frainet Method", who tries it out in a rural Spanish school. Bad times!
I found it very moving and a great testament to the humanity and spirit of this teacher
He is beaten, paraded lifeless in front of his young students, then murdered, and his body is dumped, never to be found. The film retraces his story through the efforts of the great-granddaughter of one of his students to find her grandfather’s burial in a mass grave.
Unfortunately, the book “True Story” on which it is based does not yet appear to be available in English
It deserves more attention and screenings, at least on the arthouse circuit in the UK, Europe and where I live in Australia.