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The title of Ken Loach's new movie; Land & Freedom was the slogan of the
anarchist movement in Spain. Land and Freedom depicts the Spanish Civil War as
seen through the eyes of an young unemployed Englishman, David Carr,(Ian Hart who
played John Lennon in Back Beat)who volunteers for the International
Brigades. Tired of protest marches that seem to be getting nowhere David leaves his
Liverpool home to fight in Spain. As a newly recruited member of the British Communist
Party David's idealism is challenged by his comrades who he meets in Spain that represent
the Anarchist and independent Marxists movements in that country.
Land & Freedom is a war movie unlike any other, Loach uses an
international cast, to depict the political nature of the Spanish Civil War. The movie is
actually filmed in northern Spain where local villagers still have bitter memories of the
battles and betrayals of their revolution. More than just a war movie Land and Freedom
depicts the revolutionary idealism of the time.
Loach and writer Jim Allen have teamed up before to make Hidden Agenda, their
successful movie about Ireland. Land and Freedom shows the Spanish civil war as a
political war unlike its Hollywood predecessor; 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. Loach
and Allen maintain that this is not just a movie about the past but a statement for today
"to counter the forces of fascism and reaction that are again rising around the
world".
Land and Freedom won the European Film Award, the Felix, for 1995.

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