Joris Ivens’s advocacy documentary for the Republican cause intercuts a besieged Madrid with a nearby village digging an irrigation canal, linking the war to bread, land, and survival. Produced by the writers’ collective Contemporary Historians, edited by Helen van Dongen, scored by Marc Blitzstein, and narrated in its U.S. version by Ernest Hemingway (after an initial Orson Welles track), it blends frontline reportage with persuasion against Franco’s forces and their German–Italian backers.
Top Cast
Manuel Azaña as Himself (President of Spain)
José Díaz as Himself (Parliamentarian)
Dolores Ibárruri as Herself
Enrique Lister as Himself (Republican Army)
Commander Martinez de Aragón as Himself (Republican Army)
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