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NanaComposed by Manuel de Falla

Tale

The buried memories of the Spanish Civil War are unearthed as a woman searches for the remains of her grandfather's father and discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher from Tarragona.. I felt very lucky to discover this film on a Singapore Airlines flight!

He comes up against the local priest, a died-in-the-wool authoritarian, and subsequently is ratted on to the incoming authoritarian government and troops of Franco, in the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War

It tells the story of a beautiful progressive teacher, a follower of the little known and quite revolutionary "Frienet Method", who tries it out in a tiny village school in rural Spain. Bad timing!

I found it very moving and a great testimony to the humanity and spirit of this teacher

He is beaten up, paraded almost lifeless before his young pupils, and subsequently murdered, and his body dumped, never to be found. The film rediscovers his story via the attempts of the great-grandaughter of one of his pupils to find her great-grandfather’s own burial in a mass grave.

It deserves more attention and screening on the arthouse circuit at least, in the UK, Europe, and where I live in Australia

Unfortunately the "true story" book on which it is based does not seem to be available in English as yet.