Released:
1937-07-10

Overview:
Joris Ivens’s advocacy documentary for the Republican cause intercuts a besieged Madrid with a nearby village digging an irrigation canal, linking the war to bread, land, and survival. Produced by the writers’ collective Contemporary Historians, edited by Helen van Dongen, scored by Marc Blitzstein, and narrated in its U.S. version by Ernest Hemingway (after an initial Orson Welles track), it blends frontline reportage with persuasion against Franco’s forces and their German–Italian backers.

Director:
Joris Ivens

Runtime:
0h 53min

Genre:
Documentary

• Cast:
• 
  Manuel Azaña
  as
  Himself (President of Spain)
• 
  José Díaz
  as
  Himself (Parliamentarian)
• 
  Dolores Ibárruri
  as
  Herself
• 
  Enrique Lister
  as
  Himself (Republican Army)
• 
  Commander Martinez de Aragón
  as
  Himself (Republican Army)