The space Punto de Vista dedicates to the most invisible of Spanish films of the past will focus on the life and work of José María Berzosa this year – a filmmaker whose anti-Franco ideas sent him into exile in Paris in 1956.
Three of Berzosa’s documentaries, chosen by film critic and historian Luis E. Parés, will be screened. Made between 1972 and 1976, they include Rouge Greco rouge (1972), an exploration of the mysterious lands of Castile and their bitter legacy using the paintings of El Greco as a pretext, and one of the episodes in the French TV production Espagnes, a three-episode series centred on El Cid, Don Juan and Don Quixote.
The episode chosen is the first one, Comment se debarraser des restes du Cid (1973). In the series, Berzosa deconstructs the myths associated with these three characters, used by the Franco regime to stand for eternal and universal values of Spanish culture.
Finally, ¡Arriba España! (1976), a documentary on the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship from a caustically critical perspective, with a skilful use of archive and documentary materials and interviews with Spanish politicians of the period.