While at War

Miguel de Unamuno, Spain's most famous intellectual and rector of the University of Salamanca, initially supported the military uprising of 17-18 July 1936, which he saw as a way to restore order. Within weeks he watched friends such as the Protestant pastor Atilano Coco and the mayor Casto Prieto Carrasco disappear into the rebel repression. Meanwhile the generals, meeting near Salamanca on 21 September, chose Francisco Franco as commander-in-chief, and on 1 October he took power as head of state in Burgos.

On 12 October 1936 Unamuno clashed publicly with General Millán-Astray in the university's great hall and was stripped of his post; he died under house arrest on 31 December. Amenábar follows the record closely, but the exact words of the famous speech, including the line 'you will win, but you will not convince', were reconstructed years later, and historians still debate them.