#Brothers of war 2019 movie

Prego skillfully and compellingly twists this dullness into creepiness, peppering the role with half-smiles and silences that last a beat too long, all the while suggesting that behind the facade there is desperate ambition. (It was MillГЎn de Astray, both in life and in the film, who shouted вЂњDeath to intellectuals!вЂќ during UnamunoвЂ™s final speech.)ДЇranco, whose portrayal in Spanish films has tended toward caricature, is a challenge for an actor, since by all accounts the dictator who ended up ruling over Spain for nearly 40 years was a dull little man with a high voice. This second, somewhat livelier strand of the film essentially deals with the establishment of Franco as the Nationalist leader, accompanied by his faithful follower, MillГЎn de Astray (Eduard Fernandez), the populist, one-armed, one-eyed character who founded the Spanish Foreign Legion, who revels in his nickname of вЂњthe MutilatedвЂќ and who invites Fernandez to spiritedly chew up the scenery on his every appearance. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing over in Morocco, where Francisco Franco (Santi Prego) is preparing, aided by the Germans, to fly to Spain to support the coup. Salvador, along with UnamunoвЂ™s daughter Felisa (Inma Cuevas), is adamant that fascism is on its way, but Unamuno is skeptical. Unamuno dons his trademark beret and heads out to meet up with Protestant priest Atilano (Luis Zahera) and his young Marxist protege Salvador (Carlos Serrano-Clark). Awakened from slumber by the sounds of gunfire, one of them is the elderly Unamuno, the former rector of Salamanca University and thus one of SpainвЂ™s leading intellectuals. The viewer knows that he will die, but many at the time could not believe in such a possibility. A beautifully staged first scene set in July 1936 shows Nationalist troops moving into the square of the cathedral city of Salamanca to declare a state of war before arresting the cityвЂ™s mayor for the crime of being Republican. War opens with the fluttering flag of SpainвЂ™s Second Republic, whose decline the film will go on to chart. Chaos and public humiliation for Unamuno were the result. In 1936, soon after the start of the Spanish Civil War, the ailing Unamuno (Karra Elejalde) made a legendary speech at the University of Salamanca, warning the Francoist Nationalist forces in the audience that they could вЂњvencer, pero no convencerвЂќ (вЂњwin, but not convinceвЂќ). These are the lessons painfully learned by the filmвЂ™s aging central figure.

#Brothers of war 2019 movie

Internationally, auds may respond to the fact that this very Spanish tale is one Civil War movie that we do, in fact need, right now - one that warns us that tyrants who are initially a bit of a joke often end up quickly wiping the smiles off peopleвЂ™s faces, and how compassion and dialogue are fragile virtues that should not be taken for granted. While WarвЂ™s dutiful sense of responsibility to its source material is laudable, it feels limiting.ДЄt home, the filmвЂ™s balanced view of left- and right-wing - unusual in Spanish films - will raise debate as well as the standard (and falsely grounded) complaints that this is one more Civil War movie we donвЂ™t need. But despite the worthy seriousness of its intentions and the parallels with the present it cleverly draws at every turn, the final impression is of dramatic opportunities left unexplored. Ambitious in scope, carefully crafted and featuring several fine performances, the filmвЂ™s depiction of a frail old man realizing that a world changing for the worse is rapidly leaving him behind could have delivered the emotional punch of The Sea Inside.

Now comes While at War, a classically put-together study of the Spanish philosopher and writer Miguel de Unamuno that doubles as an up-to-date warning against the dangers of political passivity. The Sea InsideвЂ™s moving reflections on assisted suicide won him the 2005 foreign-language film Oscar, while the feminist-philosophy mashup of AgoraВ (2009) divided viewers. Aside from delivering terrific work in a range of genres, Alejandro AmenГЎbar - best known for the Nicole Kidman starrer The Others -В has often sought to deliver on-message food for thought.