Interwar · Film · 2007
13 Roses
Las 13 rosas
In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, a group of young Madrid women with leftist sympathies believe they have nothing to fear from Franco's victory.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Madrid
As the last bombs fall on the city, the friends keep up their political work and dance while Franco's troops close in.
Stop 2: Police headquarters, Puerta del Sol
Betrayed by a friend, the young women are arrested one by one and brutally interrogated.
Stop 3: Ventas women's prison
Key location
Crowded into Ventas with mothers and babies, they hold on to friendship, songs and the hope of release.
Stop 4: Cementerio del Este
A summary military court decides their fate, and they write their last letters to their families.
What really happened
Madrid, besieged since November 1936, surrendered to Franco's army on 28 March 1939. The victors launched a sweeping purge: tens of thousands of Republicans were arrested, and women's prisons such as Ventas were packed far beyond capacity. Many of the detainees were young members of the socialist and communist youth organisations.
On 5 August 1939 thirteen young women, most of them members of the Unified Socialist Youth, were shot at the wall of the Cementerio del Este alongside dozens of men, in reprisal for the killing of Commander Isaac Gabaldón, a Francoist police official, on 27 July. The film, based on real letters and testimonies, merges and simplifies some of their stories.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Las 13 rosas
- Directed by
- Emilio Martínez-Lázaro
- Countries
- Spain
- Languages
- Spanish
- Released
- 2007
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Civil war
- Prisoners of war
- True story
