198 LAND AND FREEDOM
Production
Utilizing British and Spanish actors, Land and Freedom was shot largely in sequence
on location during the summer of 1994. The film’s bookend scenes, which depict
David Carr’s death and funeral, were shot in Liverpool but most of the film was
shot in the Maestrazgo region of Spain, a mountainous area that spans the border
of Aragón and Castellon 200 miles southwest of Barcelona. Specific locations
include the village of Mirambel in the Teruel province of Aragón, Morella in the
province of Castelló, and Barcelona. Due to severe bud get constraints, some scenes
key to the history of the war originally earmarked for dramatization could only be
alluded to in conversation. Among those who served as con sul tants to ensure
historical veracity were Andy Durgan (University of Barcelona), a noted Marxist
historian of the Spanish Civil War; Joan Rocabert, a POUM veteran; and Jesus Gar-
cia, an Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran.Plot Summary
Land and Freedom centers on Liverpudlian Dave Carr (Ian Hart), a young, unem-
ployed, and naïve member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who
goes to Spain to fight on the Loyalist side. The film actually begins almost 60 years
later, in present- day England. After the el derly Carr’s death from a heart attack,
his grand daughter Kim (Suzanne Maddock) discovers a cache of letters in an old
suitcase that Carr wrote to his En glish girlfriend, Kitty (Angela Clarke) while he
was fighting in Spain in 1936–1937. The film, mostly one extended flashback,
brings those letters to dramatic life. Carr, like George Orwell, travels to Spain to
join the POUM militia in August 1936 and gets some decidedly amateur military
training in Barcelona. Also like Orwell, Carr is provided with an 1896 Mauser rifle
(which later explodes in his face) and is sent to the stabilized Aragón front in east-
ern Spain where he fights lice and boredom and joins his comrades in exchanging
taunts with the enemy nearby. The action picks up as Carr’s militia unit captures
an enemy village, but Lawrence Coogan (Tom Gilroy), a beloved comrade, is killed
in the pro cess, and a Catholic priest (Ricard Arilla) is executed for aiding the Falan-
gists. After a heated argument, Carr’s comrades decide to collectivize the estate
land they have seized. From that point on, though, complications set in as Spain’s
Stalinist- controlled Loyalist government insists that the POUM militias integrate
into a unified Popu lar Army— which really means submitting to the po liti cal dis-
cipline of Stalin’s Comintern and betraying their revolutionary ideals. Carr’s unit
votes not to integrate, but Carr soon joins the Stalinists, much to the chagrin of
Blanca (Rosanna Pastor), his Spanish quasi- love interest. After a brief stint in Bar-
celona fighting former comrades from the POUM and CNT (Confederación Nacio-
nal Del Trabajo, i.e., anarchists) over control of the city’s telephone exchange
(April– May 1937), a disillusioned Carr rips up his CPGB membership card and
rejoins the POUM. The film concludes in mid- June 1937 with Carr’s POUM mili-
tia unit having to retreat on the Huesca front due to lack of promised reinforcement
by Popu lar Army regulars. To add insult to betrayal, Loyalist government troops
show up after the battle to disarm Carr’s militia unit, arresting its officers for po liti-
cal apostasy, and shooting Blanca (the very embodiment of revolutionary idealism)