SALVADOR

Spain, 2006, 138 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Bruhl, Tristan Ulloa, Leonardo Sparaglia, Leonor Watling, Ingrid Rubio.
Directed by Manuel Huerga.

Salvador Puig Antich is not a household name for most audiences, perhaps not even in his native Spain. Catalonia, more probably. But in 1974 he was well known, part of a group of terrorists running between Barcelona and Toulouse from the late 1960s, the time of student unrest around Europe and the formation of the Red Brigade and other underground movements. As General Franco’s forty year dictatorship was in its last years, it became more repressive and idealistic terrorist groups took to armed robbery and abducting politicians.

Salvador was one of these idealists. His group, however, took to violent means, robbing banks to set themselves up as rebels against the regime but also to finance labour groups and strike action. The film opens with the police raid that arrested Salvador and in the heat of which he fatally shot a police officer. In discussions with his lawyer, there are flashbacks to explain and illustrate what his life has meant and what he put into action.

Half way through of this almost two and a half hour film, we are back where we started, background filled in. Salvador then becomes a much more emotional film, a film about capital punishment that must stand with the other films that have dealt with this always contentious theme – especially when it is connected with political issues and is being used for political ends.

In the first half we observe Salvador and, while there is sympathy for his idealism and principles, it is his crimes and violence that are alienating.

Then we get to know the person behind the action and that is a different experience. Audiences can identify with the angry warden, who even tries to warn off the lawyer, then reads Salvador’s letter to his father, begins to think differently about him, then talks, discussing his son’s dyslexia, plays basketball with him and comes to realise, as we do, that the state is exercising vindictive barbarism and scapegoating. The death sequence (garrotting by an indifferent executioner) is powerfully brutal.

This is a substantial film with Daniel Bruhl widening his international star status (his mother is from Barcelona). A collage of subsequent terror and politicking since the 1970s accompanies the final credits.

1.A film of Spanish history? Relevance to the 21st century? The Franco era, the revolutions of the 60s and 70s, change in the 70s? Politics? Justice?

2.The Barcelona settings, the border with France, Toulouse? The re-creation of the 1970s? The streets, homes, the banks? Prison? The stirring store and its mood?

3.The title, Salvador as a character, in his time, a symbol? Being presented as a symbol in the film?

4.The 60s and 70s, terrorism and fascism, dictatorships and rebels? The student groups of the period? Underground? The use of violence rather than political change? Ideologies?

5.The two-part structure of the film, the initial emphasis on terrorism? The second part on capital punishment?

6.The initial set-up, the police, waiting, the arrest, the shootings? The victims taken to hospital? The police angers?

7.Salvador and Arau, the discussions between lawyer and client in the prison? The framework for the first part of the film? The bond between the two, changing attitudes? Salvador seeming callous? Arau and his concern? The framework for the flashbacks?

8.Salvador in himself, his place in his family, the family bonds? His explanation of his father’s past, the war, concentration camp, the pardon? A man of fear? Ineffective in the present? His group of sisters, his love for them, at home with them? A strong character, reading, studies, absorbing ideology, the influence of the group and particular individuals? How well defined the individuals and audiences understanding them? Ideas, the movement to robbing the banks, the laughter and the jokes at the first attempt, Salvador and the getaway car? The increased robberies? Their cavalier attitude? Publishing books? Papers? Giving their funds to the workers, the strikers? The touch of the Robin Hood? The police intervening in the robbery, issues becoming more serious, no jokes? The shooting, some of the characters and their love of guns? The group in Toulouse, the movement back and forth, orders?

9.Cuca, Salvador and his relationship with her, her resisting him? The discussion about conservatives and liberals? His asking her to receive the telegrams and hand them on? The consequences for her, her arrest, the three days of interrogation? Police treatment? Her planning to be married, her showing Salvador the house, the approach – and his resistance? His relationship with Margalida? The personal relationship, her being something of a conscience for him?

10.In prison, his life there, the brutality of the police and their insults? The guard, his warning Arau off? His reading Salvador’s letter to his father? His change of attitude? Discussion about reading, his son’s dyslexia? His discussing this with the other guard? The tentative basketball hoops, playing basketball, chess? His change of attitude, his grief as he assisted at the execution? His shout against Franco? Audiences identifying with him and his change of attitude towards Salvador?

11.The audience not seeing the trial, the explanation of the evidence, the severity of the sentences, the constant appeals? The pope and other interventions? The military court confirming the sentence?

12.Salvador in prison, calm? Reading The Trojan War? Discussions with the guard, the visits of his sisters, his concern for them, the letter to his father? His love for his younger sister, wanting her to go to New York, his getting her to imagine flying to New York – closing her eyes and the image for himself as he went on his death journey? His letter to his brother in New York?

13.The executioner, his casual attitude, wanting things to hurry up, the nature of the garrotte, the explanation?

14.The sisters, their visiting, their contempt for the police? The youngest at school, the game, her being urged to run to the prison?

15.The visit of the priest, his friendship with Salvador, peace?

16.The lawyer asked to leave, the final walk, the heavy breathing, the blindfold, the barbarity of the method of killing? His still being alive after the garrotting?

17.Laid out, the funeral and the crowds, the voice-over about the people’s response, the constant masses being said in Barcelona, the priest announcing his shame?

18.The final collage of terrorist acts and destruction over the thirty years since Salvador? History and movements, revolutions? Seeing them in their time – and the reassessment in films like this?