La Escuela Fusilada

The documentary is about the destruction of the republican educational model. It narrates the cleansing that Spanish teachers underwent during and after the Civil War. April 14, 1931 brings to Spain the possibility of an unprecedented change. The Second Republic is the most profoundly democratic essay in its history and aims to introduce the country into the concert of the modern world. Education becomes the spearhead of the reformist ideology, with the determination to make citizens instead of subjects. "The republic will be saved by the school," his theorists went on to proclaim. On July 18, 1936, all those hopes were dashed. The military uprising was especially preyed upon by the teachers. Seventy years later, History still does not dare to give a figure of murdered teachers. But this was not the only blow to the school. Francoism began a process of purification that lasted until the 1960s and in which 6,000 teachers were expelled from teaching. The purge affected the entire teaching staff. The procedure was the usual one of the regime: everyone had to prove their 'innocence'. Franco died on November 20, 1975. Many things have changed in Spain since then. There was greater freedom, openness to the rest of the world, the arrival of democracy... and some republican teachers return to their posts in the school. After 40 years, those who remained faithful to the law are 'amnestied'. Spanish society shows that freedom without anger is possible. Will it be possible without memory?