Review of Land and Freedom (1995) by Hans L — 28 Jun 2009

Ken Loach makes the case against privatization of resources and documents the idealism and energy of a revolutionary movement, in this Spanish Civil War drama as well as either reinvigorating or betraying the (neo) realist cinematic project (of an ocular modus operandi and temporal unity).

Ian Hart plays David, an unemployed Liverpudlian who leaves the dole queue to join the anarchist CNT and POUM militia in their fight against general Francisco Franco's coup against a legitimately elected popular socialist government.

As he acclimatizes to his new environment he learns the full horror of political division and the communist/Stalinist betrayal of the libertarian militia and this soon emerges as greater interest for Loach (and his screenwriter Jim Allen) than who won the war.

How it was lost is the point of the film. It is essentially George Orwell's Homage To Catalunya on film and many of the scenes and themes are lifted directly from the book. The narrative is told in subjective flashbacks as David's granddaughter in the present reads his diaries and collected news clippings upon his death.

The strategy of using a subjective investigation of another person's memories allows the film-makers to avoid the trappings and weight of historical forces for a more personal and affective diegesis, as well as providing a structure that is temporally unstable- which is unique in both realist cinema/s and Loach's own cannon.

Essentially though it is a film that argues since the earth is inherited on a generational basis (as well as the struggle for social security and prosperity) private ownership is impossible and also criminal to deny future generations their birthright to share in the riches the world has to offer.

There is no freedom without land, only peasants and slavery. It is also about learning to see and enunciate for one's self and as is common in Loach's work characters often exist as a synecdoche of broader realities and human relationship opposed to the "psychologically believable" characterization that plagues mainstream narrative cinema.

Rarely has the humanism and pedagogy of the Left been so beautifully registered on celluloid.