Interwar · Film · 1996
Libertarias
In revolutionary Barcelona a young nun on the run falls in with the anarchist women of Mujeres Libres and follows them to the front, where they demand to fight like any militiaman.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Barcelona
Key location
Fleeing her convent as churches burn, María hides in a brothel just as the militia women of Mujeres Libres arrive to liberate it.
Stop 2: Aragon front near Pina de Ebro
The women join the columns marching on Zaragoza and insist on fighting in the line rather than cooking behind it.
What really happened
When workers' militias and loyal police defeated the military uprising in Barcelona on 19-20 July 1936, the anarchist CNT became the real power in the city. Churches were burned, factories and land collectivised, and columns of volunteers, among them the famous Durruti Column, marched on Nationalist-held Zaragoza. Hundreds of women, the milicianas, went to the front with them.
The anarchist women's organisation Mujeres Libres, founded in 1936, grew to about 30,000 members by 1938. By early 1937 the Republican government was withdrawing women from combat, and the militias were absorbed into the regular Popular Army. Aranda's characters are fictional, and the film mixes revolutionary comedy with the brutality of the war.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Libertarias
- Directed by
- Vicente Aranda
- Countries
- Spain
- Languages
- Spanish
- Released
- 1996
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe, Mediterranean & Africa
- Themes
- Civil war
- Combat
