As part of the “Filming Spain’s Exile in Our Hearts” film series, the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain presents a collection of stories of the Spanish republican exile.

From its beginnings, Spanish cinema was related to expatriation. The adopted Parisian Surrealist Luis Buñuel had to find refuge in Hollywood, Mexico, and back in France during the Spanish Republican Exile of 1939.

This film series aims to present to U.S. viewers lesser-known transnational samples from or about those times. From rarely-seen documentaries about the harsh realities of the Spanish Republicans’ defeat in France: Jean-Paul Dreyfus’s Refuge, or Le Vernet d’Ariège: Photos from a Camp, to their blurred contributions in the liberation of occupied France (The Forgotten Men of the Ninth Company), as well as the transformation of their resistance to the Franco’s dictatorship (The War is Over).

Mexican solidarity toward a large group of refugees is remembered through Visa to Paradise, and particularly, On the Empty Balcony, the only film the Spanish exiles filmed about their own plight. The Galíndez’s Mystery brings USA Cold War and Latin American dictatorial entanglements. Finally, Beltenebros, Soldiers from Salamis and The Sea and Time will display filmic adaptation of true fictional accounts, hovering the problems of memory, return, and the uses of history. The whole series will feature discussions with filmmakers and specialists.