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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Land and Freedom - Review﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿<i﻿>﻿Land and Freedom﻿</i>﻿, Directed by Ken Loach 

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by Seth Clarke﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, May - June 1996﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

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Land and Freedom tells the story of David, a working class Communist Party (CP) member from Liverpool, England. David goes off to fight for the republic in Spain in the wake of the fascist uprising of July 18th, 1936 and his story is told through a series of letters written to his friend Kit which are found by his grandaughter after David's death. 

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On his arrival in Spain, David meets Bernard, a member of the POUM (the Spanish Workers' Party) and joins their militia. The film develops an excellent portrayal of the revolutionary movement during the Spanish Civil War showing the commitment and bravery of workers and peasants in their struggles for land and against fascism. 

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Loach skillfully brings to life the socialist current that existed at the time in a way that is compelling both to those who are well versed in the history of the Spanish Civil War and to those who have little or no knowledge of it. 

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The way that the reformist and conservative tendencies within the revolutionary movement were exposed is also highly commendable, most notably during a scene in which peasants are meeting to decide what to do with the newly liberated land. A debate ensues about whether to collectivize the land or whether to divided it into plots. The contradictions in the movement were best depicted in this scene. 

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When the peasants turn to the POUM militia for input, the response is something of a polemic. The arguments range from stating that the division of land must be organized to support the war, for if the war is lost there will be no land to divide, to an argument that the republic should moderate its slogans to attract more international support, otherwise the war will be lost. "It's your village, you have to decide what to do with the land," was one response to the question. 

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Perhaps the most interesting element of the film is the way David develops an understanding of the political terrain that he is operating in as the film progresses. His loyalty to the CP and the unwillingness of the Stalinist leadership to provide the militia with decent arms leads him to join the international brigades. He soon finds himself fighting against the movement he had come to defend. Confused and demoralized by Stalinism, David goes back to the militia to find a deepening political degeneration within the ranks of the POUM. 

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Throughout the film, a relationship develops between David and Blanca, a Spanish POUM militia member brilliantly played by Rosana Pastor. To the director's credit, the relationship is not overly romantic. However, I did find this subplot to be a bit tired and predictable, especially as I thought it detracted from the strength of Blanca's character which for me was as interesting as David's. In fact the word "unnecessary" comes to mind when reflecting on this threat in the film. Perhaps it is seen as important to crowbar some romance into a movie to give it a better chance of being picked up by one of the chains for general release. 

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Land and Freedom is a film that should be seen by as many people as possible. Films on this type of subject, sympathetic to workers' struggles, are few and far between. They should be celebrated when they break out of the treacle pit which is the film industry. 

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Like much of Loach's work, it is a very human story, told with a healthy sense of optimism. In terms of its merit, it exists somewhere between Warren Beatty's "Reds" and Eisenstein's finest work "Strike," still one of our century's greatest films. 

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