KATHRYN MARSHALL. THE COMBINATION of political and evocative qualities in Land and Freedom make it completely comaching viewing The film opens in modern Liverpool where an old man. David Carne, dies from a heart attack. His granddaugh. from the period from 1936 when he was fighting for the Franco's fascist regime in Spain. As she reads his descriptive letters, we return to the days of revolutionary struggle which Carne joined We learn about the demo. cratic tuncuoning of ine rUUM militia. "everyone political debate. votes on all decisions " he tells us, and we see that there is no are torging a cam schously thinking in terms of being a the village land. part of revolutionary change.
A Spanish woman. Maite. convinces her comrade to rereturning home to deal with about their lives. domestic troubles. These peo. comtaoes in this most impor tant of struggles.
Throughout the first half of the film Loach also hits you DOSCO energy that swept through them all as they took villages back from the fascists and began to plan togete now trey This is one of the major achievements of the film. You guns are ocing tired and 13s the context of a new kind of No one stops the people from deciding either way on Inconson wear n to collectivise immediately Having real responsibility sets the debate on fire; it's noisy, it's animated, it is people deciding for themselves Loach does not romanticise the experiences on the Front as all positive. Comrades die, other have to cope.
Loach argues that the revo. lution was betrayed by its supCommunist Parties: he vocal. ises through various of the tional Brigade through Came's eyes who, as a carrier characters how Stalin had quite a different vision of the of a Communist Party card temporanly joins them. tuture from the comrades toy- ing to build a revolution. He hears how the POUM and the anarchists were acBut to make sure we are not cused of collaborating with left wondering who to believe, he shows what went on the fascists and he sees them being shot at. it is not long "Noisy, animated, it is people deciding for themselves' before Came is back wih the POUM and we know he is right. But it is too late: the leaders of the militia. If everyone who sees this film goes away understanding the nature of stalinism and its away from the miseducation which says that socialism dice with the collapse of the Soviet Union will have been taken.
Loach doesn't locate this film in the past. He uses flashback to make it clear that these struggles remain our struggles even in a period where things seem quiet and where people feel there is no hope.
The film opens with the symbol of the National Front daubed on the wall of the block of the flats where Carne lived. But it also shows an anti-racist, anti-fascist poster It closes with Carne's granddaughter raising aloft his red scarf. This deliberate use of colour links the past with today. There are impor tant messages, of having a chance of real past and important lessons for the tuture strongly arucursica in this film.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No 92. October 28 1995. Page 8