July screening by Haringey Independent Cinema is Land and Freedom Directed by Ken Loach, UK, 1995, 109 mins

July marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War. At Haringey Independent Cinema we couldn’t let this pass without  marking this crucial event. So, we are showing the classic film Land & Freedom. Ok, some might have seen it years ago, but how can we miss the opportunity to show it again. It’s one of those films you can watch again and again. There will also be some songs from the Spanish resistance sung by Pilar Lopez and hopefully some Spanish food and drink to share.

Told from the point of view of Dave, a British volunteer who journeys from Liverpool to fight in the brutal civil war that engulfed Spain in 1936, Ken Loach’s masterpiece neither romanticises the conflict nor diminishes the dilemmas of individuals caught up in it.

Dave’s political journey starts out in the Communist Party. But, he goes on to fight with the Marxist POUM militia in a civil war within the civil war, in which the POUM sided with a glorious but short lived anarchist inspired revolution in the City of Barcelona, ranged against the increasingly repressive forces of Stalinism.

Using his trademark technique of mixing scripted dialogue with improvisation, and professionals with non-actors, the film challenges the audience to think about how we would respond when faced with the profound dilemmas of creating a new society in the midst of a civil war.

View the trailer: