There have been a few films about the Spanish Civil War in recent years - Ken Loach`s Land and Freedom is one. In Libertarias we get a spanish viewpoint, but one with an unusual focus. It`s the women who are centre stage here. Maria - Ariadne Gil - a nun who takes refuge in a brothel to escape her fate at the hands of the atheistic militia.... Charo - Loles Leon - a prostitute; Pilar - Ana Belen - is one of the militia who storm the brothel and convert the workers, and then there`s Floren - Victoria Abril - a woman in touch with the spirits.... all these women devote themselves to the republican cause, ending up on the front line. I have a feeling that Ken Loach got slightly more political accuracy with his film than veteran Spanish filmmaker Vicente Aranda - who made Lovers - does with Libertarias. The women are fighting not only for Spain but for their sex. Interestingly, although the women do carry guns and occasionally fire them, they tend to lug a lot of peeled potatoes as their primary duty. It`s a likeable enough film, given a depth that possibly it doesn`t deserve by Jose Luis Alcaine`s beautiful cinematography, because basically this film is a soapie in a highly emotive and highly political context. Unfortunately the politics tend to fade into the background while emotion attains the high ground.
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